Archive for April, 2009

To be an Eco Charger, or Not to be an Eco Charger: that is the Question

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

On April 1st, 2009, at the Smart Energy Wireless 2009 trade-show in Las Vegas, Nevada, the CTIA-The Wireless Association overwhelmingly adopted the Universal Charger Solution (UCS).

Ironically, on a day infamous for practical jokes – at a convention named Smart Energy – held on behalf of an industry notorious for its negative environmental impact – in a city not recognized for energy conservation, this measure was accepted for 2012 compliance.

As discussed in an earlier post, the UCS is a surprisingly commendable, eco-charger-2254albeit shortsighted, first draft from the mobile wireless industry. It lacks comprehension as it fails to fully address vampire energy loss that occurs in mobile devices. We strongly suggest a revision that forms necessary standards for truly energy efficient Eco chargers.

Research suggests that UCS chargers will only reduce vampire energy by 50%, instead of aiming to eliminate vampire energy consumption altogether. Why not take up front action and manufacture universal chargers with exisisting technology that eliminates wasteful energy loss?

The UCS does bring the right discussion to the table. It’s most Eco-notable quality is the call for a standard micro-USB user interface between a mobile device and its charger. This universal standard will reduce the vast amount of chargers that go into landfills every year, reduce energy that is required to manufacture them, and reduce carbon emissions during shipping.

However, most environmental rewards and positive PR of the UCS are ancillary among the biggest trophy – reduced costs for mobile device manufacturers. The UCS will reduce design, manufacturing, packaging and shipping costs of chargers for mobile device manufacturers.

If an industry’s goal is to provide profitable tech-savvy products and be environmentally revolutionary, then consumers must demand that their electronics actually be energy efficient, instead of only being labeled as such. After all – a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

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Duh?!?!?! The Usual Suspects: EPA points to Infamous Greenhouse Gases as Main Culprits of Increasing Climate Change

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

usual-suspects4

 In a new “groundbreaking” report released last week (4/21/09), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fingers carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases (GHG) as direct contributors to climate change, saying that GHG emissions present a serious danger to public health and the environment.  The entire Eco-community was shocked … that it took decades for this report to come from the EPA (ever hear of a little thing called the Kyoto Protocol?).  Regardless, it’s a welcomed sign that the US Government is finally coming to terms with a long overdue reality – the energy party is over.

The EPA’s report focuses on 5 specific GHGs: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

These harmful GHGs are created  (directly or indirectly) from energy production, like coal power plants, and in the industrial production of numerous everyday products, such as appliances and electronics, and have varying Global Warming Potential (GWP), a metric measuring how much of a given mass of GHG is estimated to adversely contribute to climate change.  GWP’s measure is based upon a comparison between the GHG in question and the same mass of CO2.  ghg21

As the chart displays, the 5 GHGs targeted by the EPA are well known byproducts of power generation and/or byproducts of industrial production, i.e. electricity power plants and the production of consumer electronics.  Also, notice that CO2 has a GWP of 1, even though it’s a very toxic GHG; thus, imagine how damaging the other GHGs are to this planet’s ecology.

We share a complicated relationship with our electronic devices, consumer products and motor vehicles.  While they make our lives easier by solving problems of need, accessibility and convenience, they also create a host of environmental problems that must be addressed, such as motor vehicles emissions and energy consumption of electronics.  Eco batteries, electric cars with Eco battery charging, alternatively fueled vehicles and other Eco friendly ways of charging and powering our technology-dependent lives is crucial to our future and our children’s future.

Maybe this EPA epiphany is the stage in addiction where admitting you have a problem comes many years after the problem is well known?  At the very least, it’s a long awaited signal to the rest of the world that the US is finally ready to confront its unhealthy appetite for GHGs at the proverbial energy buffet.

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Warning Track: New NASA Report Details Spiraling Acceleration of Climate Change

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Climate Change is a hot and divisive topic and has been for the last couple of decades.  Sadly, it seems to extrapolate – you’re either for it, or you’re against it – reaction from people, like climate change were the Yankees and losing only means cheering (or booing) another day.  Except with climate change, the human franchise doesn’t have endless seasons to get it right.

On April 6th, 2009, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a report detailing the accelerated thinning and melting of Arctic sea ice and permafrost compared to 2004 estimates, which forecast that it would take 50-100 years (from 2004) for that same ice and permafrost to thaw and melt.  Further evidence from NASA’s report confirmed the 5th lowest level of Arctic sea ice cover in 30 years (or since first being measured).  An admonition of that number is that the past 6 years have recorded the 6 lowest levels ever.  Meaning – the climate is changing rapidly – right now.

Why has actual climate change exceeded the widely accepted 2004 models?  There is significant evidence that the change is being accelerated by the continued and unfettered consumption of fossil-based fuels: direct measurement of rising surface air temps, subsurface ocean temps, increases in average global sea levels, and, what is highlighted in this article, retreating glaciers, ice cover and permafrost.

For example, climate change has been quickened by increasing emissions of unnatural greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released from man-made power supplies, such as coal burning energy plants.  Also, there is a vicious cycle called feedback loops that’s forcing the exponential melts.

A surprisingly large amount of CO2 invading the atmosphere is a result of feedback loops, secondfeedback3which is a causal path that leads from the initial generation of the feedback signal to the subsequent modification of the event.  According to a recent article in the Washington Post, the most prominent feedback loop is the cycle in which warmer temps are melting Arctic permafrost, layers of frozen soil that contain trapped methane (methane is a quarter more potent than CO2) and carbon dating back to the last ice age, which is being released when it thaws.  This Arctic permafrost collectively holds a trillion tons of carbon, and it has been estimated that, if the associated feedback loop continues, 10% of that carbon could be released this century.

Why do dangerous environmental emissions continue to rise amid growing awareness?  While the Industrial Revolution for the Western Hemisphere is long over, developing countries, such as China and India, are experiencing booms in expansion and industrial production, which has contributed to the vicious feedback cycle as well as the exponential CO2 emissions.  That does not mean these developing countries are wholly to blame; rather, the aggregate global demand for power, which is only expected to rise, is a key contributor, especially the unnecessary and wasteful power drain – like vampire energy loss.

As the debate surrounding climate change continues, our planet is signaling that it can’t wait for us to persuade our rivals.  Examples of recent acceleration are all around us and will eventually be drastic enough that everyone will take notice, but there may not be the extra innings needed to change course.

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Defanging Sleep Mode: the Opportunity Cost of Stand(ing)-by

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Most of us would fail the marshmallow test as adults. The designers of widely distributed tech products, like cell phones, flat screens, notebooks and PCs, were so sensitive to a consumer base that covets convenience that the phenomenon of standby power was introduced at exponential levels and has since increased the miscellaneous electric load (MELs) of the world.

Standby power, or vampire power, is energy that is consumed by devices while not in use or performing their primary function.  Sleep mode is the generic term for a lowered power mode that certain electronic devices avert to when not in use to attempt to reduce the standby power that would otherwise be wasted.  Your notebook probably says standby, sleep, hibernate or suspend depending on the operating platform.

The dark side of sleep mode is that while the electronic device is operating at lowered power mode – it is still operating.  Thus, sleep mode still wastes energy, and the general public has been led to believe that this operating state is efficient for their dormant devices.   As mentioned in our Energy Star post a few months back, why go half way?  In this case, why issue semi-effective standards for operating systems and not the battery and power supply needed to convert the energy that actually operates those systems?

As business professionals and consumers in a tech-obsessed world, we tether ourselves to devices of choice, because convenience is collateral.  So much so that often is the case that PCs at home or at the office are not properly shut down overnight or on the weekends to save minimal start-up time the next morning.

A recent Yahoo Tech article estimated that the aggregate cost of computers left on overnight comes to around $2.8 billion a year in the US, which converts to about 20 million tons of unnecessary and dangerous CO2 emitted every year or the equivalent of 4 million cars on the road over that same time period!

A friend in corporate communications at a large multinational divulged that her employer recently conducted research on vampire energy loss that occurs when employees leave their systems on standby overnight and on the weekends.  Their calculations involve 3,000 PCs and notebooks across their local campus.  Computers left in standby wasted about 559.884 kWh per year at a cost of $22,846.19.

Yahoo also addressed this on a micro-level by estimating that 1,000 PCs left running overnight can cost a company an extra $28,000 per year.

In an economic climate where every business is focused on tightening supply chain and reducing costs, firms and manufacturers of computer hardware, cell phone chargers and other semiconductor devices need to realize the savings of outfitting electronics with existing technology that eliminates vampire energy loss altogether without standing by as energy and money are sucked from our planet’s (and our businesses) collective statement of retaining earnings.

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