LCD (flat) monitors use on average 50 to 70% less energy in on-mode than conventional CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors. A recent LBNL study on new monitors and personal computers reports that in their sample 15" LCD monitors consume 30% as much power when on as 15" CRTs, and 17" LCDs consume 51% as much power when on as 17" CRTs. This advantage tends to get smaller as LCD screens become bigger.

All in all, at 8 working hours a day, the energy saving of choosing an LCD over an equal size CRT could typically be well over 100 kWh/year.

Reference: http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_023b.shtml

Dell our main monitor supplier confirms that LCD monitors use much less power, radiate less heat saving on cooling and use less toxic materials in there construction.

DIT has Been working actively to replace all outdated CRT monitors with much more power efficient LCD Monitors  Read More ....

Close

Prior to recent progress in the major initiatives to upgrade the University’s Wide Area Network (WAN) intercampus network traffic was predominantly carried of a Private Microwave link between Albury, Wagga, Bathurst and Sydney.  This network consisted of Microwave dishes at many sites Microwave Map across the state with microwave dishes mounted on towers as well as the associated support infrastructure such as battery backup equipment and network devices.

In addition to the large power requirements there are also issues with Electromagnetic Radiation

The University’s WAN now runs on Fibre Optic cable which has significantly less power and radiation issues. For the most par the University simply leases services on existing cable networks.

Close

DIT have committed to a large program of work over many years to provide modern communication technologies that link the remote campuses of CSU and other external organisations and mitigate the need for travel for Face-to-Face meetings, Teaching and Learning events or research collaboration.  The energy savings gained by the use of these technologies is difficult to quantify but every car or plane journey avoided has substantial benefit to the environment.

Technologies include

• Video Conference equipment in meeting spaces, desktops and Teaching areas as well as the Video Conferencing bridges that allow multiple sites to connect and allow meeting participants to join via telephone  
• Audio Conference Bridges allow telephone meetings to be initiated at any time and for multiple internal and external users to participate.  The new VOIP system being rolled-out to the University campuses will further enhance these services
• Bridgit Desktop Sharing software allows video conference participants to share desktop functionality and facilitates electronic presentations at all connected sites  
• Wireless access points in meeting spaces allows participants to bring laptops and other mobile computing devices

Close

Many IT equipment vendors are much more focused on green issues today and aggressively market their product's contributions to environmental sustainability.  There are also organisations that produce energy efficiency standards and assess vendor efforts against those standards.

 Two examples include:

• The Green Electronics council http://www.greenelectronicscouncil.org/ that has developed the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) http://www.epeat.net/  that allows consumers to compare and select environmentally preferable electronic products
• Energy Star http://www.energystar.gov.au/ an international standard for energy efficient office equipment including computers, printers and photocopiers, and home electronics.

For more information on CSU’s major IT equipment Vendors green credentials see the following:

• http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/dell-earth.aspx
• http://www.ibm.com/ibm/green/
• http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/environment/index.js
• http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/environment/index.html

Close

DIT has implemented a policy of centralised disposal of surplus computer equipment.

Details Include:

• Selling usable PC’s that have a reasonable viable remaining working life via local Public Auction Houses with the resulting funds being used for sustainability projects
• Non-viable computers, network equipment, and printers going to authorised eWaste recyclers
  • Kurrajong Recyclers in Wagga
  • Chifley Recyclers in Bathurst

• DIT offers a disposal service for Mobile phones

Close

Remote PC management and provisioning software in conjunction with supplying PC vendors with a CSU designed image for pre-installation has meant there is a much reduced need for DIT staff to travel to the client’s location to carry out remedial and preventative maintenance on the Universities desktop fleet. This has in turn reduced the amount of campus based travel previously required to put a PC on a desk and keep that PC running. Virus outbreaks are mitigated by remote patch management and in the event of an unforseen problem can be dealt with by deployment of a centrally crafted package rather than attending each client machine with a solution on a disk.

Close

Many computer applications have traditionally been run on a server by themselves to ensure issues that affect one application do not impinge on the functioning of other applications or that there is enough computer resources available to handle peak loads.  This leads to the inefficient utilisation of server resources where it is estimated that most servers are running at a utilisation rate of less than ten percent.  Server virtualisation allows multiple independent instances of an operating system to be run on one piece of physical hardware.  This means that the hardware resources can be segmented and allocated to operating systems based on requirements and can be modified to meet peak loads when required without any interference between the applications.
The major virtualisation technology used at CSU is VMWare

An Interesting example of what can be achieved:
http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Virtualization_Energizes_Cal_State_University

Close

A multi-function device (MFD) will use less than 50% of the energy of a separate printer + scanner + fax machine + copier. This general rule not only applies to the smaller 'all-in-one' machines for the home or small office, but also for volume production in larger offices where digital document centres can save 50% over the separate pieces of equipment.

Xerox claims that a workgroup of 100 people can save about $2,000 a year (assuming an electricity rate of $0.18 per kilowatt hour) in electricity costs by replacing eight workgroup printers, 24 personal printers and 12 fax machines with eight digital multifunction systems.

http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_031b.shtml

Close

DIT is progressively moving from a standalone server infrastructure to Blade computing.  This is where servers (generally with  a smaller form factor) are housed in a chassis that allows consolidation of power, cooling, switching and cabling as well as other features such as shared DVD drives, Video/Mouse/Keyboard IO and USB ports etc.

The IBM chassis used by DIT holds 14 servers and through this consolidation make significant savings in Power consumption and heat dissipation (that lessens Air Conditioning power requirements).

A comparison of the power and cooling comparison of 14 equivalent standalone servers with 14 blade servers in a chassis reveals the following:

Close

DIT has over the last several years moved to a consolidation strategy for storage mainly focused on eliminated pools of wasted disk space that were directly attached to servers. Traditionally disk space was provided to servers by means of internal disk drives or by small dedicated storage arrays physically attached to the server.

Storage Area Network (SAN) technology allows disk storage to be allocated to servers over a dedicated network. This eliminates the situation where some servers are running out of space while others are not utilising all the space that is attached to them. Disk Space is allocated as required. This utilisation efficiency coupled with shared power and cooling infrastructure significantly reduces the power requirements of Direct Attached Storage (DAS) or internal hard disks.

EMC CX4-240 SAN 

Close