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Renewable Energy for IT

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by guruofdos

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Recently, we changed over from power-hungry PC's and monitors to VIA EPIA C3 Ezra based PC's in Micro-ITX format with TFT displays. All the equipment is powered by ITE format (laptop-type) external power supplies providing 12v at 4.1amps. This means that each workstation consumes a tad over 100 watts of electrical energy.

As an experiment in saving power, I connected two such systems to a car battery instead of using the mains power supplies. I borrowed a wind-powered mini-generator from a friend of mine who is in the yachting game (used to top up the batteries on sailing cruisers) and erected this on the roof of my office and ran a feed to the battery. The battery was given a full charge before use.

Six days later, both machines are still running and the battery is showing 12.6v with the generator temporarily disconnected (the generator delivers 14.4v the same as a vehicle alternator, and although a car battery has a nominal voltage of 12v, it's nearer 13.2v when fully charged and not loaded).

Both machines are left powered 24/7 but have all the usual power management settings enabled, e.g. monitor to standby after 20 minutes inactivity, hard disk spin down after 30 minutes inactivity. Between 5pm and 9am, the battery pretty much recovers what has been used between 9am and 6pm the previous day.

The cost of buying a battery and boat generator is about the same as the 4 ITE power supplies they replace, and the charging system is designed to charge a battery with a wind speed anything over 2 knots (a gentle breeze)and turn itself into the prevailing wind. I'm tempted to add a solar charger to the set-up (well, the last few weeks have been very sunny) but wind is in a more plentiful supply in Southampton (usually!) than sunshine.

I don't think that 'powering an office' gets much 'greener' than this, but I'd be interested to hear of any other 'green' alternatives to traditional energy consumption that you may have encountered in the IT field.

6 replies

by jardinier

should be able to power their own computers with some kind of hot air conversion device.
Seriously, though, it's a great project you're working on.

by oldefar

Sounds like you have made an excellent start towards going green. Now if you can move the office lighting onto the same system...

The use of batteries for power storage becomes the environmental unfriendly aspect of your solution. There is guy out in California named Dick Fradella who is working on flywheel batteries. His company is Regenerative Power and Motion. http://tinyurl.com/klr7

Local power storage and generation means less reliance on power grid means less impact from grid failures. A pro for decentalization. Solar and wind power is a practical solution for small office and home requirements, reducing use of fossil fuels.

Good work!

by hal 9000

In the country where there was no mains power or more correctly the energy company wanted something like $50.000 AU to run the power lines out there and then a mininum of about $300.00 AU per month no matter how much power was actually used.

We setup the solar array which consisted of 40 Solar cells all 12 V and about 1 square metre of surface area that feed a bank of Gell Batteries through a regulator and then inverters to the mains power which here is 240 VAC for less than $10.000 AU and there are no ongoing expences other than every five years of so replacing the batteries if they fail or won't keep a charge.

This whole installation was far cheaper than running the power lines there and has the added advantage of not requiring any maintance it has been there for about 8 years now and so far I haven't been called back to do any repairs. Now if only it was as easy as that in all applications as in this case there was an incentive to go Solar but where there is an existing mains supply it is far harder to justify the intial costs which would be saved in the long run, but most people look at the initial outlay and aren't concerned about the actuall running costs as these are small and ongoing so they tend not to be noticed. But it is the way to go and is far better than any other form on power installation that I've seen so far.

Actually they have now run the grid out his way and can't understand why he doesn't want to be connected as there is still the $300.00 AU per month mininum seems to me to make a farce of energy conversation as there is no incentive to have power saving applicences when you are paying this amount per month just for having mains power available.

by guruofdos

Solar powered radio links, relays and even water pumps in third world countries are very common and have been around for years. I did some voluntary work many years ago where a charity raised money for good causes in impoverished regions and a group of engineers from various discipline provided their 'time and talent'.

In the capitalist West however, we have reasonably cheap power on tap, so to speak and take it for granted than in virtually any building we can just 'plug and go'. Perhaps the events in the NE USA a fortnight ago and the power cut in London yesterday that stranded 1800 trains gives us a reminder that taking anything for granted is not always possible!

by hal 9000

Most people in the Western World wouldn't know what to do if when they hit a light switch nothing happened or if they turned on a tap no water came out. The unfortant fact of life is that electricity is now a "Necesaty of Life" for us all in the Western World as our society couldn't function without it.The two instances that you mentioned are perfect examples but can you imange how things would go if the power was out for 3 weeks and not 3 hours?

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