{"id":1530,"date":"2008-10-15T16:45:01","date_gmt":"2008-10-15T16:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2008-10-15T18:15:23","modified_gmt":"2008-10-15T18:15:23","slug":"energy-and-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/15\/energy-and-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy and tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we attempt to become more conscious of our energy consumption, we do need to consider the energy demands of our technology. I started thinking about this (again) when I encountered a blog post indicating that Google was using its power as consumer to require chip manufacturers to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theregister.co.uk\/2008\/10\/15\/google_and_intel\/\">increase the temperature<\/a> at which computer chips fail. The server farms Google operates require a hefty investment in energy for cooling and greater tolerance for heat would reduce cooling costs. What I know about the energy demands of server farms I have learned from Tom Friedman (<a href=\"http:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/11\/ignorant-as-we-want-to-be\/\">Hot, flat and crowded<\/a>) and technology does use a lot of energy.<\/p>\n<p>You get a sense of the same issue when you enter a school computer lab. My department&#8217;s computer lab is located next to my office and we sometimes run the fan on the air conditioner even in the winter. The windows are sealed so using the air conditioner to pump in some sub zero air is the only way to cool the room.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/internalheat.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1531\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/15\/energy-and-tech\/internalheat\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/internalheat.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"252,98\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"internalheat\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/internalheat.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1531\" title=\"internalheat\" src=\"http:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/internalheat.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"98\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I operate a high end Macintosh in my office. It turns out the Mac has 4 fans evidently necessary to keep the system functioning. I seldom put much strain on this equipment. The most demanding thing I do (programming) is probably the least demanding of my computer. The power of my old 2e would easily keep up if I know how to work using the command line and could connect to my servers.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/13\/thin-client-cloud-computing-whats-the-difference\/\">thin client<\/a>&#8221; technology would save energy &#8211; no hard drive, mostly just the energy to power the monitor on the client side. What about the demands on the server side. Perhaps server farms should be located in North Dakota. At least the cost of cooling in winter should be lower.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1530\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1530\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we attempt to become more conscious of our energy consumption, we do need to consider the energy demands of our technology. I started thinking about this (again) when I encountered a blog post indicating that Google was using its power as consumer to require chip manufacturers to increase the temperature at which computer chips &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/15\/energy-and-tech\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Energy and tech<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1530\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1530\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":35,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zo8Q-oG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningaloud.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}