>
> Actually, I do wonder what cost vs benefit there is with the heating
> of things like transformers and electronic gizmos.
>
Well, then you have to balance in the changes in replacement cycles for
equipment that has shortened lifespans due to on/off switching. But to give
you an idea about energy consumption...
In the telco industry the equipment on the udder-end (I have a cold) of the
DSL circuit as well as the routers, switches, etc., consume HUGE amounts of
electricity. The more bits traversing a box, the more power it takes. A
ten gigabit ethernet circuit at rest consumes almost nothing, but throw 800
megabit of traffic over it (80% fill) and you can cook marshmallows over the
cooling fans. Consider that this typical box is connected to a minimum of
two other boxes within the same building, all consuming similar amounts of
power to move bits, I am just thinking out the top of my head, but each
Gigabit per interface is consuming 1/2 watt of energy. This means that just
to traverse the typical communications center will require 3 watts to move a
gigabit of data through six interfaces. Then if the data is moving 100km to
the next data center, it requires even more power to light up the fiberoptic
for that distance, not including mid-span amplification and regeneration.
Again, I'm just noodling and my numbers may be off by a little bit, but
let's estimate 1 watt per gigabit per 100km with data/communications centers
every 200km.
The average customer internet connection uses 5% of their available
bandwidth (per 24 hour period, proven by actual statistics), and the
worldwide average customer internet connection is 256 kbps.. Also, the
averaged internet experience is 1000km of distance covered. So....
256kpbs * 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours = 22.1 gb per day.
(22.1 gb * 10 watts for distance) + (22.1 gb * 6 data/communications centers
at 3 watts each) = 221 watts for distance + 398 watts for
data/communications centers.
Therefore, NOT including "local loop" (ie DSL or Cable Modem), the average
internet connection is consuming 619 watts per day. The local loop probably
averages 5 watts to maintain connectivity when the customer modem is turned
on--not including the power-consumption of the modem itself or the router in
the house or the computers...
Anyway, if you were to figure your "carbon footprint" for internet usage,
not including the actual powering of your modem, router, computer or even
the servers and drive-farms, figure it is somewhere around 619 watts per
day. That 619 watts is JUST data transfer from your local access point
(telephone office or cable company local pop) to "the world". Spinning
hard-drives, and calculating servers add another bit of global
warming/cooling/change.
Of course, these numbers are just off the top of my head, but based on what
I know the equipment I deal with consumes.
Next up---How much power does a telephone call consume...
AG
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