Save energy with just another click

Forget having to go through the motions of switching your computer off to save energy when you leave the office as all it takes now is the click of a button.

A new gadget being imported into Malta, the Ecobutton, can be plugged into your computer much like a mouse and is said to be able to reduce a home PC's annual energy cost by about €65 and knock off 135 kilograms in carbon dioxide emissions.

The power-saving button costs €20 and works by switching the computer into ecomode at the click of a button. This can lead to significant savings for businesses as a company with 100 computers, using the button's ecomode for three hours daily, can save about €6,000 annually, importer Innovative Solutions' director Steve Alamango said during the device's launch.

But the benefits are not only economic. In fact, about five million tonnes of the environmentally-threatening gas are estimated to be generated from idle computers within the EU alone.

The idea was to click the button before going out for a meeting or taking a coffee break and the ecomode conversion is instant, Mr Alamango said.

Unlike the hibernate mode, he explained, the Ecobutton allows PC users to see how much they were saving. A software that can be downloaded from the eco-button.com site tells you how much money and CO2 is being saved. Since different computers have different consumption rates, the site asks you to punch in your computer's specifications and the standard electricity rate to make its calculations.

The power needs and emission rates of computers were often underestimated, Mr Alamango explained.

Every year about €7 billion are spent to power the world's estimated one billion computers, 185 million of which are in the EU. These, altogether, generate 355 million tonnes of CO2.

Computer access in Malta's households is estimated at 62.6 per cent, according to a National Statistics Office study carried out last year.

Resources Minister George Pullicino welcomed the device adding that his ministry would make sure to add the button to its energy-saving initiatives. He said that such initiatives would help Malta reach the EU target to reduce CO2 levels by 20 per cent by the year 2020 when compared to the level recorded in 1990.

Mr Pullicino added that in the coming days the government-commissioned report on CO2 emissions would be concluded and presented to Cabinet. The report would offer guidelines on how to reach the EU targets.

He said his ministry would soon launch a programme on its website that helped companies calculate what measures to take to make up for the CO2 they emitted.