1. THE RISE OF THE ‘ECO-PC’…
The PC industry is set to ship 256.7 million units in 2007, marking 12.2 percent growth over
the previous year. IDC had previously forecast a growth rate of 11.1 percent and shipment
volume of 254.2 million.
On average IT power consumption is growing ahead of company headcount in larger
enterprises. Almost 65 per cent of businesses report increasing power costs in the last three
years, and 40 per cent say this is down to increasing use of IT rather than company growth.
PC Life-Cycle
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive came into effect in the EU in July
2006. The RoHS Directive regulates the dismantling and recycling of waste electrical and
electronic equipment by restricting the use of hazardous substances used in their
manufacture. In addition to the regulations on hazardous waste, the EU's Waste of Electrical
and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive took effect in the UK in July 2007. The long-
delayed implementation makes manufacturers responsible for the disposal of electrical and
electronic goods. Such directives are driving a change of thinking around ecological and
financial impacts of energy consumption.
Many of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) have comprehensive environmental
sustainability policies and provide product recycling for consumers globally. Many of these
manufacturers also work with partners who provide economical and environmentally sound
management of the computer hardware recycling process. Typically the hardware is de-
manufactured, although some usable parts may be removed for re-use. The de-
manufactured material is sorted by commodity type (such as steel, aluminium, copper,
plastic, etc.) and then either re-used to make new products or disposed of in an
environmentally friendly manner. In addition most manufacturers are compliant with EPEAT,
Japan PC Green Label, IT Eco Declaration, Korea Eco-Label and TCO standards.
Desktop PCs being sold today have enormous processing capacity, thanks to the use of
dual-core and quad-core processors from vendors such as the Intel® Core™2 Duo. Modern
PCs also have much more storage capacity and graphics processing capability, in order to
handle the demands of running Microsoft® Windows Vista™ and playing digital media.
Power Consumption
A desktop PC consumes roughly the same amount of energy at its highest usage level as a
100w light bulb.
• during boot power in watts is close to 100w;
• during idle, no power management,. close to 60w;
• during full power saving, no hard disk spin, machine in sleep mode, 35w
A CRT monitor consumes 75w when in use. When power-saver mode is initiated the power
consumption is minimal. Many companies still buy CRT monitors as they are less expensive
to purchase currently than LCD. However an LCD monitor uses only about a third the energy
of a CRT (ca. 25W instead of 75W). Although most enterprises use ENERGY STAR®
compliant monitors who work with the operating systems’ energy saving features (power
management). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented new ENERGY STAR®
4.0 standards in July 2007. The power management feature can power down the screen after it
is not used for 15 minutes (the time can be set). Instead of the "screen saver," the monitor
just goes dark. It is estimated that 60 percent of computers and monitors are left on at night;
and 40 percent of monitors are not enabled for power management.

2. Unfortunately the legacy generation of desktop PCs in enterprises with 3+ year refresh
cycles is the Intel® Celeron® D chipset in line with a minimal cost of IT technology
procurement strategy. The Intel® Celeron® chipset does not provide any lights-out or “Out Of
Band” capabilities.
Enterprises who have embraced a high adoption rate of energy saving and out-of-band
technology are able to justify two-fold “Technology Adoption Savings” from a model based on
the potential operational support cost savings as well as reduced energy costs.
The total power consumption of a typical PC and monitor does not consume more than 175
Watts of energy at its highest rate. At night time when your PC is "sleeping" it only consumes
35 Watts.
With a range of 35w to 175w per PC a company with 20000+ employees would consume
approximately 3.5 megawatts. The average fossil fuel plant in the United States releases
about 1,900 pounds of CO2 emissions per megawatt of electricity consumed…
These new desktop machines can be powered down over night and only awoken to have
software installed or for maintenance activities:
“When you finish for the day simply select windows shutdown and then turn your
screen (monitor) off, but please leave the power to the PC turned on and connected
at the electrical outlet. Your PC may be switched on temporarily overnight for
automatic software deployment remotely.”
Intel® has released their vPro™ Chipset with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel®
AMT). The Intel® vPro™ chip provides lower power consumption and out of band (Wake-On-
LAN / lights out activation) technology which will meet the reduced energy considerations of
many customers. Using the new chipset enterprises are able to provide a secure remote
power-up/down and communication channel to deliver updates remotely, even if PC power
was off at the start of the scheduled maintenance.
Grant Chapman