monn...@iro.umontreal.ca wrote: >> older machines are also normally using a lot more electricity than >> something small and more recent might use. > >While that's obviously good, that doesn't necessarily justify buying >a new machine from an ecological perspective: AFAIK the embedded energy >in a laptop (i.e. the energy that was necessary to produce the laptop) >is typically higher than all the electricity that the laptop will >consume during its lifetime.
I'm interested in this topic, so I've done a little research online. Many folks look at energy consumption in terms of CO2 emissions, as a useful proxy for direct energy use. * An old article from 2011 [1] suggests that 70% of the energy consumed in a typical laptop will be in manufacturing. They estimated 227 to 270 kg of CO2 in manufacturing at the time, but don't give any direct numbers for annual usage that I can see. That's disappointing. The links to the direct research don't work any more, either. :-( * A newer study from 2021 [2] gives more detailed data, looking into CO2 usage for the various stages of a laptop's life and covering a lot of different models. They suggest typically ~331kg in production, ~30kg for transport and then ~61.5kg per year for usage. * A more recent article from 2024 [3] is less detailed, but estimates 200-300kg for manufacturing and then ~50kg per year for usage. Using the numbers from the last two articles, it looks like for a *typical* modern laptop with *typical* usage patterns it will take between 4 and 6 years for it to burn as much energy as it took to make it. We'll (hopefully!) see more efficient energy sources for production and more efficient computers over time, but I'm not going to try and prodict exactly how those numbers will evolve - I'm not that silly! *However*, what we *should* take from this: * Don't throw old computers away just because they're old - reusing older machines is good. Throwing machines away after just a year or two is horrible in terms of wasted energy. * If a new machine is genuinely more efficient (and we keep being told that they are!), then it can absolutely pay off to switch to something newer if you're expecting to use it for some time. My own recommendation for many people is to pick up used 2-3yo laptops (e.g. from ebay or similar) and use them for a few years more. They'll be cheaper to run than *really* old machines (like the one that started this thread!), and by re-using a computer that already exists you're not adding anything new to the waste energy calculations. And if you're looking at a 10yo machine, the chances are you will be able to find something newer and better for ~free that somebody else is finished with. [1] https://www.networkworld.com/article/752694/computer-factories-eat-way-more-energy-than-running-the-devices-they-build.html [2] https://circularcomputing.com/news/carbon-footprint-laptop/ [3] https://medium.com/@laurariehl/the-carbon-footprint-of-everyday-technology-57d97db6c2e4 -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. st...@einval.com Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky, Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I...
