[Gllug] Energy consumption puzzlement

[M.Blackmore]

Heres' a puzzlement: borrowed a lekky measuring machine from the local
environmental group and stuck it onto the multipoint socket that feeds
the server, firewall, eth switch, wireless access point, adsl modem,
printer.

Turning OFF the printer (and hp 850c deskjet) INCREASES the electricity
consumption by 3-5 watts (varies cyclically over a couple of seconds).

I'm surprised at this. First I would have assumed that the printer,
which I am not sure is new enough to have a standby mode but it might of
course, would be using a lot more than 3-5 watts and more like 30-50w if
not in a standby mode.

BUT why should turning it off INCREASE the consumption?

Is it perhaps the samba/nfs/mail/printer server trying to access a
printer which is no longer responding to hello there messages?

And if this is the case, wouldn't it eventually give up? Been a few
hours now.

I'm trying to get an idea of if it is worth ditching the 10 yr old kit
with its higher energy consumption for newer stuff like ITX mini boards.
I'm still of a mind that the embedded energy in the manufacture and
transport of the kit hasn't got to breakeven for putting it into the
scrapyard for an uncertain recycling fate (if any recycling actually
happens as opposed to scammers dumping old kit on some 3rd world village
somewhere) and replacing it with new equipment which has had to be
manufactured and shipped around the world and made of materials
themselves shipped around the world and fabricated at considerable
energy expense.

If it isn't worth scrapping an average European motor car of its era for
25 yrs for a less fuel consuming one, how long does it take to nullify
the embedded total environmental costs of using up old computer kit
until it actually irretrievably expires?





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