Greenjobs Blog

If you want to save energy (and save money too!) with a new computer you are about to purchase, we will give you some steps to follow. They will help you to buy an energy efficient computer so you can save energy when using it. By saving energy you can also save money because of a lower energy bill.

1. Do you really need a desktop computer?

Laptop use less than half of the energy a desktop computer use, and they produce less heat too. So your room will be up to 4 degrees cooler while you save valuable energy. A laptop must be enough for office, Internet and middle requirement work, so if you don’t need serious horsepower consider buying a laptop.

2. Buy an energy saving processor

One of the components which use most energy in a computer is its processor. i7 and Phenom II quad core processors are very nice and very powerful, but they use too much energy (more than 120W). Try to buy a processor which suits your requirements with the lowest energy consumption possible. Two processors which use very few energy are the Core 2 Duo E7200 from Intel and the Athlon 64 X2 5050e from AMD.

3. Can I save energy with RAM, Motherboard and hard disk?

Well, not really, these components won’t make a big difference, but you can follow some guidelines. First, less RAM modules = less energy use, so buy just 2 (to enable dual channel) and no more. Motherboard won’t give you more than 1 or 2 watt saving.

Hard Disks; I would seriously recommend Seagate 7200.12 series, which offer great performance with very good energy consumption. There are some “eco” and “green” models out there, but sometimes they have poor performance and they don’t make a big difference from other hard disks. SSD may help you to save some energy (sometimes they use less than 1W, regular hard disks use up to 5W), but they are very expensive.

4. Graphic card for low energy consumption gaming

Graphic card is the other component which drains a lot of energy in your computer among the processor. Let’s see some tips to choose the most efficient one for you.

First, if you are going to use your computer to play games, the most powerful model I would go for is the Radeon HD 4770 (78W peak), which has a great performance per watt. If you want to play but not too serious, I’d go for the GeForce 9500 GT (with DDR3 memory, 38W peak). If you need dedicated graphic card but won’t use it for playing at all, I’d go for the Radeon HD 4350 (15W peak). If you don’t want to play games, just buy a motherboard with integrated graphics card.

You can check graphic card energy consumption here.

5. Energy efficient power supply

Now you have a general idea about which pieces to buy for your next computer to save some energy, you must choose a very important part, the power supply. Always look for efficient ones (80+ certification).

There are some brands and models you can trust, they are not just efficient, but very good quality PSUs: Corsair (VX 550, HX 750), OCZ (Stealthstream 500), Seasonic… For an efficient computer, 550W must be more than enough. You may want a list of efficient PSUs. Check it and look for PSUs with 90% efficiency if possible.

In two years you will have saved the cost of a good PSU in energy saving and lower energy bills. Consider avoiding bad quality or cheap PSUs as they have very poor efficiency (70% or less).

Now you have an idea about what to buy to get an energy efficient computer. Coming soon, how to save energy by optimizing your laptop and enhancing its battery life. Also valid for desktop computers.

Have you seen our cities currently? Are you aware their huge impact on the environment? Take a look at the massive asphalt jungle in Tokyo, New York, and other big cities in the world, and now, just imagine a zero-carbon, zero-waste green city. Impossible? Nope.

It’s real. The name is Masdar City, “the source” in Arabic language. Although it’s not still finished, Masdar City will push the sustainable architecture around the world to a much higher level.

Masdar City: zero-waste, zero-carbon planned city in Abu Dhabi

Masdar City is planned to be builded in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, 17 km from Abu Dhabi. Its construction started back in 2006, and the first area will probably be habitable this year 2009. The brain behind this operation is Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company).

They are trying to deliver a completely zero-carbon, zero-waste city from its very beginning, with a solar power plant providing energy to the construction process. Masdar City will also rely on other renewable energy sources, such as wind energy, geothermal power and hydrogen power.

Wastes will be reduced to zero: waste water will be reused, biological wastes will be used to create soil, and industrial wastes will be recycled and re-used. On top of that, cars will be banned, forcing people to use mass public transport and Personal Rapid Transit.

Sustainability, according to Masdar

That is part of the environment, one of the three parts in the definition of sustainability, according to Masdar. The other two are social and economy. Let’s talk about them.

Up to 50.000 people will live there, with 1500 business. 60.000 workers are expected to commute to the city daily. There will also be a university, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), assisted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Masdar is catching the attention of some important firms all around the world, such as BASF (which will provide energy efficient materials) Siemens, etc.

If you want to know more, visit their website at Masdarcity.ae.

I personally would like to see more of these kind of projects. They’re expensive (Masdar costs up to US$ 22 billion) but I think it’s what we need. However, future buildings seem to aim in this direction… Although they are mainly projects and not facts, we’d better wait and see what is planned all around the world. And thanks to UAE for leading by with the example.

However, some people say this can turn into a luxury icon for Abu Dhabi. In my opinion this could be, but the fact is they have managed to be leaders into sustainable building. Luxury icon or not, the zero-waste city will be built. And let’s be honest, if it turns into a luxury icon and it makes other countries follow suit well that’s all the better.