The UK’s greenest financial website ?
Posted on September 13, 2006 by Tim Huckle
Filed Under Ramblings |
My father has spent most of his working life lecturing on sustainability and ‘green’ issues. Sure enough, he grows his own vegetables on the local allotment and is one of the few people I know that diligently ensures the TV isn’t on standby overnight. Just two examples of many.
I must admit to not exactly following my parents’ example on this important issue. That said, I’m fairly proud to have been involved in the replacement of 80% of our server infrastucture recently with the new Sun Fire server range.
- Less power (1/5th);
- Less heat output (which ultimately means the data centre can turn the aircon down)
- Less space (costs less, which means we can plant trees with the savings. Ok, maybe taking it a bit far)
Seriously, it’s made a massive impact and anyone looking to replace end of life equipment should consider power consumption as one of their primary manufacturer/model choices in addition to the obvious ‘footprint’ (size). Data centres will increasingly use the power factor rather than pure space to charge, so the payback will be there longer term.
http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/overview/index.jsp
You see Dad, I am green after all 
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Well, thats a bit esoteric! I take the point though.
I wonder if energy conservation ought to be an requirement - like building regulations, but applied to equipment within buildings.
That sort of thing has never been legislated for - because energy consumption by users of buildings has never seemed particularly important. Until now.
How about planning consent for change of energy consumption levels, as well as change of use. Buildings could be certified for appropriate energy use. Council Tax could be banded by energy use instead of capital values.
Angela is on the right lines, if we were to adopt these ideas, we could build property with a much more central power source, this way it would be possible to transfer our heating/ cooling demand more efficiently.
The better use of materials, with very good insulating properties and maximising the solar power by ensuring all construction allows maximum solar gains.
The central plant system would then allow with our present day technology to use the green energy resources.