Energy Saving

As I was trying to buy a monitor for my computer, I met a salesman who gave me a great deal of information on the power saving features of the modern technological inventions in the LCD technology. However when I enquired about the power savings at the wall I was told, “We have no control over the inefficiencies of power supplied by KPLC”. With all those wonderful power saving parts at the component level, how many of them are completely eaten up by massively inefficient power supplies? The reality of the matter is this: People buying electrical appliances, be it notebook or desktop PCs or kitchen or entertainment equipment aren’t given enough information that would help them make energy smart choices. I believe it's well past time for something more.

For laptops, energy consumption is generally given by the battery life which unfortunately is typically measured by turning all the radios off (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), putting the system into an extreme low power mode, dimming the display to a level below an acceptable point for ambient lighting, and then taking a reading. This typically results in a promised battery life that runs about 2x the actual observed battery life (in fact, it's a good rule of thumb to take the battery life promised by a notebook maker and cut it in half).

According to Verdiem and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, better power management for every 10,000 computers can result in power savings of about 2 million KWH, which equates to the energy equivalent of 274 cars emitting greenhouse gases for one year.

I believe all Kenyans of goodwill wont hesitate to make a contribution to energy savings, particularly because energy is expensive, looking at how they have responded to the call for saving in order to help those in need for food, but right now we can't due to factors beyond our control. For laptops, this is more than just a budget issue. When buying a laptop with a DVD drive, for example, there is the idea that a consumer might actually use it for watching DVDs when it's not plugged-in to the wall socket. But most systems simply don't have enough battery life to watch a full-length DVD movie, let alone do much else.

We all have to live on this planet, and in this day and age that means making smarter energy decisions. It would be nice if somehow we could bring the necessary information to consumers so that the realities of shopping could actually live up to the ideals we aspire to.