Something about engines, horsepower, and emissions.

[Kurt_]

Taken from that other thread

Population of the USA: 303,824,640 as of July 2008.
Assuming one computer per person (children these days have computers, and even if they don't, many people have more than one they leave on all the time), that's 303,824,640 computers. Assuming half leave them on overnight, that's 151,912,320 computers on for 8 excess hours, and that's being generous.

Now, one hour of a computer uses the same energy as one day of a 60W lightbulb. That means...

Screw it, go here:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

60kWh/month * 151,912,320 computers = 12,477,664,500 kWh/month.

That's 12.5 GIGAWATT Hours per MONTH.

That's 149.7 GigaWatt Hours per year.

That's enough power to power 112.3 MILLION households continuously.

And all that could be saved if you'd just turn your computers off at night. Tell me that isn't wasteful.

sure its wasteful but now calculate how much energy would be saved if we switched to digital power grid and efficiency went up 10-25% thats 10%-25% less power consumed (via improved efficiency of the delivery system) for EVERY HOUSEHOLD IN THE USA. id be willing to bet the numbers are similar

For example, if smart grid technologies made the United States grid 5% more efficient, it would equate to eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars.[1]

Okay, you save 10-15% in many years. But you can still power A TENTH OF A BILLION HOMES right now if you just shut off your computers at night!Any excess power can be saved in the form of COAL PRODUCING POWER PLANTS. More efficient usage can lead to less dependence on non-renewable resources, and you can't deny that.

[XCVG]

I normally do turn my computer off at night, but sometimes I forget and sometimes I have to download huge files. And usually my downloads stall if a) I am using the computer or b) someone else is using the internet.

[cennar]

good old lapy user, I steal so much power and wifi from every one I visit.

[Triton]

America's Waste: Ruining our futures!

yes and im sure all you canadians only turn your computers on when your actively using them and shut them down the second your done too.

in case your wondering, with my personal computer i DO shut it down at night unless im downloading a large file which isnt often. and its set to have the monitor shut off after 10 minutes and shut the hdd off after 30 minutes. its turned off 8-12 hours a day on average

[Rekarp]

America's Waste: Ruining our futures!

yes and im sure all you canadians only turn your computers on when your actively using them and shut them down the second your done too.

Oh and the Canadian Tar Sands! Don't forget that producing oil from those fields generates 2-3 times the amount of CO2 then from usual methods. Also it destroys hundreds of square miles of forests and wildlife habitat. Not to mention all the millions of gallons of waste water and pollution that is generated from extracting Oil from the Tar Sands.

All approved by the Canadian Government!

[Negative_Creep]

America's Waste: Ruining our futures!

yes and im sure all you canadians only turn your computers on when your actively using them and shut them down the second your done too.

Yeah why do Canadians think they are so perfect

I turn my computer off when i'm not using it, dunno why anyone needs to leave it on overnight anyway unless they are running a server.. surely it's a lot of money for laziness?

[Kurt_]

We're not perfect. But it's hard to deny that America is a bigger waster of resources than Canada is.

I mean, our government may have approved digging in tar sands, but at least our government acknowledges global warming.

If anyone watched that video in the other thread, you'd find some fun facts. Like this:

Americans have 5% of the world's population, and use 30% of its resources.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_c ... -emissions
Note the difference between Canada and America. A factor of ten.

[Rekarp]

Yeah why do Canadians think they are so perfect

Because they are jealous of how Awesome the USA is. Sure we have our faults but I would not want to live anywhere else.

[Rekarp]

We're not perfect. But it's hard to deny that America is a bigger waster of resources than Canada is.

I mean, our government may have approved digging in tar sands, but at least our government acknowledges global warming.

If anyone watched that video in the other thread, you'd find some fun facts. Like this:

Americans have 5% of the world's population, and use 30% of its resources.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_c ... -emissions
Note the difference between Canada and America. A factor of ten.

How about the fact that most of the worlds population live in undeveloped counties and don't even consume petroleum products or natural resources?

Canada — Population: 33,212,696
United States — Population: 303,824,640

By population yall produce almost the SAME CO2 output as we do! Ain't Statistics fun Canada?

[Triton]

Note the difference between Canada and America. A factor of ten.

boy, and that COULDNT POSSIBLY have anything to do with the fact that we have roughly ten times the population could it? nah, thats ridiculous!

[Rekarp]

Oh yah I should mention this.

The USA is the top producer in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro. Texas is the top state in wind power. We do lag behind in Nuclear energy but it is coming back strong after the discovery of this.

http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/01/27/nuclear_hybrid/

Yep Texas! Wait what technological advancements have come out of frozen tundra of Canada in recent years?

Hmm I thought we Texans where supposed to be backwards thinkers?

[Triton]

Hmm I thought we Texans where supposed to be backwards thinkers?

obviously out of state students

[Rekarp]

We need to change this threads title to.

Canada's Ignorance: Ruining America's Image!

[marshallh]

I leave my 400W computer, 205W Xbox 260, and my printer plugged in and running all the time. I paid for my electricity, I'll sure as hell use it.

[bicostp]

So running all those computers for a year uses as much power as about 130 time-traveling DeLoreans?

I mostly blame the people who still use CRT monitors. I have 2 19" LCDs, usually both going at once, but they still use less than ONE 19" CRT monitor. (I think LCD = 1/3 a CRT of the same size, at least according to the website you linked.)

Now, one hour of a computer uses the same energy as one day of a 60W lightbulb.

No. One hour of using a computer with an LCD display is about 3 hours of 60 watt light bulb usage. A CRT is about 4 or 5. The computer itself uses about 120, the LCD 40, and the CRT 120.



Laptops use about 40w at the most, so they're worth 2/3 of a 60w light bulb.

<s>Let's say a 40 watt equivalent CFL uses about 8 watts of power. The traditional bulb uses 116.4 kWh per year, the CFL uses 12, saving 104 kWh per year with no change in usage. According to the Census bureau (link), there are 105,480,101 households in the US as of 2000. (This number has undoubtedly grown since then.) Let's say each house has 10 40 watt light bulbs, or the equivalent use for 8 hours every day. That's 1,054,801,010 lights. Assuming the 40 watt bulb uses 116 kWh/yr, and the CFL uses 12 kWh/yr, switching every traditional bulb to a CFL would save approximately 110,121,225,444 kWh every year.</s>

110 gigawatts of power could be saved in this scenario by simply replacing light bulbs. No change in usage at all.

EDIT: I think my numbers got screwed up somewhere. DAMN YOU DECIMALS! Just understand that it's a potentially huge amount of savings with minimal effort and no decrease in use, because both put out the same amount of light but the CFL uses about 1/4 the amount of electricity.

Incandescent light bulbs are absolute garbage when it comes to generating light efficiently. Most of their output is heat. Each 60 watt light bulb swapped out for a 60 watt equivalent compact fluorescent will save 168 kWh per year.

Lesson: Turn your computers off at night, replace your bulbs with compact fluorescents, and use LCDs.

(I computed with 10 hour-a-day usage.)