California first state to restrict energy used by computers

[Okjoek]

https://www.rt.com/usa/370319-california-computers-monitors-energy/

"The California Energy Commission has voted to enforce regulations on the energy use of computers and monitors, an effort to save state residents $373 million per year. The measure may increase retail costs, but cut energy bills."

 

"Much of the savings that come from the new standards will be a result of change to the amount of energy a device uses while in sleep mode" I don't use sleep mode very often. I usually only shut it off when I leave home and if I plan to not use it for a while I just turn the monitor off.

 

"The rules will go into effect for workstations and small-scale servers in January 2018, and for certain desktop and notebook computers in January 2019, with subsequent phases for other devices." So it looks like all of our desktops are further down the road in 2019.

 

"The commission has estimated that the new rules will add around $14 of retail cost for a desktop computer, but that energy savings for those computers will reach more than $40 over five years." So there's definitely an economic logic to buying newer hardware. This is personally why I never recommend that people buy older hardware unless they absolutely have to simply because they're more power hungry on the long run.

 

Personally I'm more of a collectivist person in general and I meet stories like this with optimism. I've already made my PC more power efficient within my budget and plan to continue doing so. Most of the people around where I live would disagree slamming any sort of government regulations.

[Curufinwe_wins]

I remember doing out the math on the monitor requirements being proposed, but the jist of it was that the EU already has similar low power sleep requirements, so realistically the impact to manufacturers isn't going to be much. How much bs they try to put on consumers, that I can't predict.

[Belgarathian]

2 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

-snip-

 

"The commission has estimated that the new rules will add around $14 of retail cost for a desktop computer, but that energy savings for those computers will reach more than $40 over five years."

Most workplaces replace hardware every 2-3 years anyway making savings negligible given that the majority of workforce run mobile devices anyway unless they require workstations such as Mac Pro, or equivalent. 

 

I just can't see the major benefits they're touting. The only person that I can see this having a significant effect on is a small home business, or likewise where the aged technology is due to capital restriction, not energy efficiency and the efficiency gain isn't worth the investment. 

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

I remember doing out the math on the monitor requirements being proposed, but the jist of it was that the EU already has similar low power sleep requirements, so realistically the impact to manufacturers isn't going to be much. How much bs they try to put on consumers, that I can't predict.

Yeah I hadn't thought of that. Companies could use it as an excuse to jack up PC prices.

[SansVarnic]

Good luck on enforcement. 

What are they gonna do, do an office to office / home to home check to make sure you have the new up to spec pc gear to meet the standard? riiiiiight. /s

California Motto: What can we do to screw over our citizens today?

Unfortunately this will translate to the rest of the US just like every thing else, remember those plastic water restrictors in your faucet and shower head? yeah I remove those.  

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Drak3]

Overbearing state govt. well overreaching their bounds again? Doesn't surprise me.

 

A user looking to make their own systems more efficient with new parts is, very much, their right. It's also a mentality that, while I don't practice it, applaud.

But forcing that ideology onto all users, and even companies, is not the right of government, and more often than not, sees only one result: increase of cost to the consumers.

[Shiv78]

*california SLI/XFire enthusiasts plan move to texas*

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, Shiv78 said:

*california SLI/XFire enthusiasts plan move to texas*

Honestly I don't know why SLI and Xfire are even a thing. What kind of things can I not do with a single GPU? Is there some kind of non-industrial task out there that benefits from having more than 1 Titan XP?

[VerticalDiscussions]

40$ in savings?

 

Wow, now i can finally buy the Titan T Volta!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Does anyone know the wattage that there enforcing?

 

 

At least for servers, my old dual 1366 server seems to work just fine with energy star today, so it might not be strict enough to even make a real difference as most people are buying laptops now, and almost every laptop sleeps at under a watt. 

[Joe_MacDougall]

I will run 4 Titan Z's in protest with an FX 8350.

[Shiv78]

Just now, Joe_MacDougall said:

with an FX 8350.

why not 2 20+ core xeons or dual 6950X even though it won't work

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, Okjoek said:

Honestly I don't know why SLI and Xfire are even a thing. What kind of things can I not do with a single GPU? Is there some kind of non-industrial task out there that benefits from having more than 1 Titan XP?

SLI and Crossfire are decent upgrade paths once cards become outdated, and drop in price.

SLI and NVidia Surround also work fairly well.

There's also the bragging rights.

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, Joe_MacDougall said:

I will run 4 Titan Z's in protest with an FX 8350.

I suppose some people want to watch the solar system burn.

[FakeNSA]

20 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Snip

My only comment is: This from the state that is regulating cow flatulence. Think about it....

California restricts pollutants from cow flatulence to diesel emissions ...

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

There's also the bragging rights.

99.9% why I went with dual 290X at the time . Plus my monitor is 2560x1600 so it's not like I don't make use of the power.

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

SLI and Crossfire are decent upgrade paths once cards become outdated, and drop in price.

SLI and NVidia Surround also work fairly well.

There's also the bragging rights.

For the first one I'm not that optimistic. Even though it's cheaper by that later point, it's still older hardware that probably will have scaling problems for certain tasks I've seen others complain about.

 

Yeah I guess I left out  multi monitor setups, and I would also add that some people use advanced resolutions like 4K or 5K that me the little 1920x 1080p peasant forgot.

 

Bragging over PC hardware is stupid. It just shows you've got money and it doesn't even take more skill unless perhaps you're getting into the realm of custom cooling/ other mods then I retract.

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

99.9% why I went with dual 290X at the time . Plus my monitor is 2560x1600 so it's not like I don't make use of the power.

It would appear that there are two pyromaniacs with ambitious goals on this forum.

[Okjoek]

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

99.9% why I went with dual 290X at the time . Plus my monitor is 2560x1600 so it's not like I don't make use of the power.

Damn I think that card uses even more power than my younger brother's R9 390. And you use two of them?!

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Okjoek said:

Bragging over PC hardware is stupid. It just shows you've got money and it doesn't even take more skill unless perhaps you're getting into the realm of custom cooling/ other mods then I retract.

Most custom cooling is done for bragging rights also so your point actually still stands. My whole system is water cooled but does it need to be, nope but it's certainly quieter because of it.

 

I mean when you water cool your ram that can only ever be for bragging rights .

 

For some things I'm proud to be stupid and freely accept that label.

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

It would appear that there are two pyromaniacs with ambitious goals on this forum.

 

Just now, Okjoek said:

Damn I think that card uses even more power than my younger brother's R9 390. And you use two of them?!

Makes a good heater in winter, I have actually used it for heating. Just run up furmark and turn the fans up a little bit.

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Bragging over PC hardware is stupid.

People pay $100 for a gold plane in GTA V. It's just the exec jet, but gold.

 

Bragging over something that can actually be beneficial makes more sense.

 

4 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

For the first one I'm not that optimistic. Even though it's cheaper by that later point, it's still older hardware that probably will have scaling problems for certain tasks I've seen others complain about.

Though those problems occur often with 3way and 4 way, 2 way configs (at least with Crossfire) can be very reliable with a little tweaking. Before my X99 system, I ran crossfired cards with some tweaks, and I've never had an issue in games where other people had.

[Okjoek]

Just now, leadeater said:

 

Makes a good heater in winter, I have actually used it for heating. Just run up furmark and turn the fans up a little bit.

That actually brings up a good point. Here in central NY it gets fairly cold. maybe not "Canada eh" cold, but still pretty cold and for that I actually leave my PC on all night. I'm not sure if there's a program I can use to actually make it give off more heat lol. (Polar vortex incoming)

[Curufinwe_wins]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

Most custom cooling is done for bragging rights also so your point actually still stands. My whole system is water cooled but does it need to be, nope but it's certainly quieter because of it.

 

I mean when you water cool your ram that can only ever be for bragging rights .

 

For some things I'm proud to be stupid and freely accept that label.

I mean not just for bragging rights, also for vanity of self. I love my pc as a showpiece and 99% of the time, I'm the one looking at it.

1 hour ago, Okjoek said:

That actually brings up a good point. Here in central NY it gets fairly cold. maybe not "Canada eh" cold, but still pretty cold and for that I actually leave my PC on all night. I'm not sure if there's a program I can use to actually make it give off more heat lol. (Polar vortex incoming)

My house has room by room central heating. My computer room has the heating turned off because between all my hardware, the 200W min power 1500W max power is a perfectly sufficient winter heater once natural circulation is taken into account (cold winters here haha). It is far more bang for your buck than even a perfectly efficient space heater (electricity/heating bill that is, not cost of components haha).

[AshleyAshes]

While you are all raging about 'Evil Government', don't most PC's support these kinds of things already as a result of compliance with the European Union's Energy-Related Products Directive? (ErP)