Vampire Loads are also known as Phantom loads that are caused by equipment that while turned off, still draw current that you are paying for. A few months ago we put to task measuring and documenting our internal phantom loads- an inventory of our gear to determine what energy savings we could identify and then achieve.
Vampire Loads are also known as Phantom loads that are caused by equipment that while turned off, still draw current that you are paying for. A few months ago we put to task measuring and documenting our internal phantom loads- an inventory of our gear to determine what energy savings we could identify and then achieve.Jon LeClere at Beamingsun was right about lowering energy costs and keeping it easy for the users. Implement energy solutions that are "automatic" and don't require user interaction, otherwise your benefits become soft. We placed power strips in lieu of the USB Ecostrips and found that you must remember to switch off the power strip to gain the most savings, and this proved Jon's point.
(Note: the USB Ecostrips are sold out- that's why we used power strips)
We used the KILL-A-WATT tester to test before and after each change.
I. Workstation A & B including peripherals- the workstations were on two UPSes that draw 30 WATTS each even when all the gear is turned down. Devices charging such as as wireless desk phones and iPhones are plugged directly into the UPS. The power strip or Ecostrip plugs directly into the UPS and all the other wares including the computer plug into the Ecostrip. We eliminated a UPS since the one has enough power (kVA) to serve two computers sitting next to each other.
47 WATTS vampire load 30 WATTS load after reconfiguration (UPS trickle charge-always ON) 17 WATTS net savings X 24 = 408 daily X 365 = 148,920 WATTS yearly / 1,000 = 148.92 kWh saved per year
II. 30 WATTS second UPS eliminated through UPS sharing- Workstation B also has it's own USB Ecostrip and plugs into the same UPS as Workstation A.
0 WATTS after reconfiguration (UPS eliminated)
30 WATTS net savings X 24 = 720 daily X 365 = 262,800 WATTS yearly / 1,000 = 262.80 kWh saved per year
III. Workstation C including the peripherals were configured as Workstations A & B but not sharing the UPS.
15 WATTS vampire load 7 WATTS load after reconfiguration (UPS trickle charge-always ON)
8 WATTS net savings X 24 = 192 WATTS daily X 365 = 70,080 WATTS yearly / 1,000 = 70.08 kWh saved per year
IV. Equipment rack evaluation - removed onsite real-time backup system and replaced with backup client software on workstations to backup to Internet host.
60 WATTS net savings X 24 = 1,440 WATTS daily X 365 = 525,600 WATTS yearly / 1,000 = 525.60 kWh saved per year
V. Break room - installed powerstrip on TV and radio to turn off when not in use. Wireless access point left ALWAYS-ON.
32 WATTS vampire load 8 WATTS vampire load after reconfiguration (Wireless access point)
24 WATTS net savings X 22 =528 WATTS daily X 365 = 192,720 WATTS yearly / 1,000 = 192.72 kWh saved per year
Note- the 22 hours is when the TV and radio in the break room are not used. We use about 2 hours daily and we did not discount weekends.
SUMMARY Annual kWh Savings I. Workstations A & B savings: 148.92 II. Eliminate redundant UPS savings: 262.80 III.Workstation C savings: 70.08 IV. Equipment rack consolidation savings: 525.60 V. Breakroom savings: 192.72 Total Yearly Estimated Energy Savings: 1,200.12 kWh
Should someone forget to switch the power strip off in the break room, then, the benefit erodes. As for the workstations- there's no forgetting. Users shut down the PCs at the end of the day and the USB Ecostrip does all the work.
The total annual savings potential represents a savings of 7% of our annual energy consumption. I cheerled dumping the backup system and using Apple's online DOT MAC service instead. We did end up netting a couple of hundred bucks by not re-licensing the former backup system.
If Virginia Tech is right about the future, power will become distributed and everyone will generate some or all of their own power, then - this means before building a power plant, an efficient energy plan and review of energy use will need to be in place. Then, the same kinds of exercises must be documented because these metrics are essential. Conservation must be ingrained within the management and operations thought process and transferred to the IT/telecom inventory. This means being open to new ideas, and while it all sounds familiar and easy to do, there's a gap in getting it done.
Consider that energy shortages during the next five years will appear in the form of more disruptions- planned (rolling blackouts) and unplanned (over-capacity, weather, failures, maintenance) outages. These events do disrupt business, workflow, productivity and profits. So as a first step in knowing how much energy you use, an inventory is required as is the consumption (stated in WATTS) of each item on the inventory. Along these same lines, you will be calculating new costs to run energy backup systems since these systems run on gas, diesel, or LP and all of these prices are rising too. So downtime from the utility is becoming more expensive to counter. Reassessing what remains up may be a point of future pondering.
UPSs are good tools, and instead using one UPS for one PC, consolidate. Upsize the UPS to a slightly higher unit and it will carry the load of two instead of one. A U.S. DOE initiative is targeting UPSs for improvement too. The so called trickle charge is sizeable when you consider the vast number of UPSs installed. A small UPS costs $12 a year to trickle charge and the bigger the UPS- the bigger the trickle, thus the more it costs to maintain. While it may never go away, the potential is there to reduce wasted power. An alternative to some battery backup systems used in data centers is the low speed flywheel technology as used at Canadian National Railway's Symington Yard and there are no batteries used, which is a huge maintenance benefit, as is the elimination of the cost of "trickle charging" the system batteries (since there are none).
In buildings with isolation transformers, chances are you won't be using small UPSs for PC users, and it's probably better that you don't. Even the small UPS uses about 30 WATTS and that's no trickle. A good way to protect gear is to use the capacitor I mentioned in Nailing Down Your Power Factor. This gear corrects power factor and provides TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppression) to the whole panel so everything connected to that panel is protected. Remember that protection is as only as good as your grounding and the gear you use; Pay A Little Now or Pay A Lot Later discusses these issues.
These efforts are the low hanging fruit and easily identified and corrected. Reducing energy waste can pay off on the back end if you are considering building a solar PV or other alternative energy power plants, since these costs start at roughly $10,000 per kilowatt.
So, assume I build a PV system, my first 1 KW is already spent for supporting phantom or vampire loads, and if you know about conversion rates and efficiencies, then you'll know so is my 2nd KW. Realistically, I'm spending $20K just to support phantom power (waste)? In other words- a 1 or 2 KW PV system doesn't produce 1 or 2 KW, especially in Maryland's sun.
Until you are energy optimized, building your own power plant won't necessarily save you money- it will produce power to offset your waste, and this is a waste of resources. Optimization is paramount, and it's akin to the old model of understanding your ACPCM (Average Cost Per Call Minute). The process, as menial as it is, does give light to the old adage that you can't manage what you don't know. Energy consumption is measurable, and once an inventory is established with baseline data, then it becomes easier to find opportunities or judge performance based upon consumption. Managing the consumption then becomes more about being aware and then making better choices, and this will certainly spark not only debate but should stir competing forces such as Nortel beating up Cisco over greenness.
For L-enterprise, there's a very cool product that runs client - server and that is the Faronics Power-Save. The software includes flexible scheduling, enterprise reporting and flexible configuration settings. Faronics, an Energy Star Partner, provides control over computer power configurations, so workstations can be configured to shut down, stand-by and hibernate based upon CPU, disk, and application activity. Even better are the rebates--if you're lucky enough to be in the right location you could net a zero purchase effect. This software does make sense for L-enterprise as opposed to the individual USB Ecostrips.
Still, you must be aware that the electrical grid is a shared resource. The U.S. power grid is highly dependent upon the other guy's ability to generate power, take up the slack, and it's like transportation (rail and air) and the PSTN. They are all: regulated; subsidized with taxpayer money; in place to serve the national public interests; and are impacted by weather and other external environmental conditions. Everyone must be a good or become better stewards of energy because it impacts how well or poorly the grid operates. Managing power grid outages isn't going to get easier in the coming years, and already we've experienced and will continue to experience "bigger and badder" utility outages that according to AFCOM, will impact over 90% of the data centers.
Harvard Business Review published a study that included the slow adoption rate of CFL light bulbs. Jokingly- the Washington Post blames one of the wives. CFLs don't save a substantial amount of money for the individual user, but implemented globally, they do represent significant savings. While the global potential in savings just for lighting is significant, Harvard's study found it psychologically unexciting for users. Light bulbs, server farms, the energy quandary, and growth in energy demands- it's all part of the dilemma we are facing in what industry energy experts call the Energy Straight Jacket.
I can only conclude that this process (trying to save energy, reduce amount used) is seemingly never ending. One thing I can say, whenever I'm asked about the rated power consumption of anything-"It's just like a light bulb." It all adds up.
