[Stoves] Break Even Ecological Footprint

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Josh and All

 

Jeremy sez.

 

I didn't bother to read the big reports but a scan through them shows me
that the claim is misleading in that article but not incorrect about the
iPhone and doesn't just apply to the iPhone but all phones which use data
(which includes any device that accesses data over the internet).

The actual report referenced says:

"Reduced to personal terms, although charging up a single tablet or smart
phone requires a negligible amount of electricity, using either to watch an
hour of video weekly consumes annually more electricity in the remote
networks than two new refrigerators use in a year. And as the world
continues to electrify, migrating towards one refrigerator per household, it
also evolves towards several smartphones and equivalent per person."

Footnote: "New refrigerator 350 kWh per EPA Energy Star; ~700 kWh/yr weekly
streaming HD from [network operations] + [network embodied energy] + [tablet
embodied energy]; note, ignores data centers & end use tablet charging: ~
300 kWh/yr wireless network operations from HD video 2.8GB/hr per Netflix,
network energy ~2kWh/GB. Note energy use varies w location (type/age
equipment), system utilization (see Auer et al, "How Much Energy is Needed
to Run a Wireless Network?" June 2012). Network energy ranges from19 kWh/GB
The Mobile Economy, 2013, AT Kearney, to ~2kWh/GB per CEET, The Power of
Wireless Cloud, April 2013. Annualized embodied/manufacturing energy to
produce tablet (details in this report) ~100 kWh/yr per tablet, and cell
network operating energy equals annualized embodied energy of network
equipment used for 5 years. Refrigerator embodied energy adds 5 - 10% to
lifecycle energy use of refrigerator.

Basically the report is saying that the smartphone doesn't use much
electricity for charging but the infrastructure it is using consumes more
electricity (see note on use of the word electricity) than 2 new
refrigerators in your house, top of page 15 and 39 in the report explains
why.  Of course this only applies to people using the network, otherwise
that claim is false.  This report is correct because new technology always
adds a drain when connected to the traditional electric infrastructure just
like the time before refrigerators and when refrigerators where added to
households.

The DVD one is explained in that report's reference and the article's claim
is false as the report refers to the carbon footprint being larger and not
the electricity consumption which is much smaller, both are mentioned in the
report and I think summarized nicely in the abstract of that same report.

Shipping to Streaming: Is this shift green?  Abstract: "Streaming movies
over the Internet has become increasingly popular in recent years as an
alternative to mailing DVDs to a customer. In this paper we investigate the
environmental- and energy-related impacts of these two methods of movie
content delivery. We compare the total energy consumed and the carbon
footprint impact of these two delivery methods and find that the non-energy
optimized streaming of a movie through the Internet consumes approximately
78% of the energy needed to ship a movie, but has a carbon footprint that is
approximately 100% higher. However, by taking advantage of recently proposed
"greening of IT" techniques in the research literature for the serving and
transmission of the movie, we find that the energy consumption and carbon
footprint of streaming can be reduced to approximately 30% and 65%
respectively of that of shipping. We also consider how this tradeoff may
change in the future."

Regards,

Jeremy

 

++++++++

 

Interesting short article about the energy footprint of information
communications technologies:

 

http://grist.org/news/your-iphone-uses-more-electricity-than-your-fridge/

 

some highlights:

 

"The average iPhone requires more power per year than the average
refrigerator..."

 

"...it takes more electricity to stream a high-definition movie over a
wireless network than it would have taken to manufacture and ship a DVD of
that same movie."

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