Dell to cut PC power consumption by 25 percent by 2010

There will be less heat coming out of your Dell PC in the future.

The Round Rock, Texas-based PC giant has set a target of cutting the power consumption on its laptops and desktops by 25 percent in 2010, according to a report from Martin LaMonica at News.com. That will mean lower power bills for large companies—close to two-thirds of the power in PCs never gets used for a productive use, according to some estimates. A lot of that power gets converted to heat (reach around and touch the back of your computer). Idle time also consumes a lot of power.

The company will also do the same for its servers.

Last month, Michael Dell showed off a compact desktop that uses 70 percent less power than a regular minitower desktop and takes up 80 percent less space.  Smaller computers, of course, also mean less plastic, which means less petroleum products consumed in production.

So how will they reach this goal? PC makers didn’t really start concentrating on power consumption in earnest until a few years ago. Back in 2001, Intel and a bunch of other companies began to crank down power consumption in their chips, but mostly to curb heat. There was a fear that hot chips could cause servers to melt or malfunction. Since then, of course, electricity rates have climbed.

While Intel and AMD have largely curbed processor power consumption, a lot of other components haven’t been retrofitted for lower power. Power supplies, that brick you plug into the wall to run a notebook, are historically somewhat inefficient. Several companies are trying to bring down the price on power supplies that can convert 75 percent or more of the power coming in from the wall into something that your PC uses.

Microsoft and Verdiem, meanwhile, are working on software that lets IT managers optimally adjust power consumption remotely.

Swapping out traditional hard drives, which have whirring motors, for flash memory will also help. Screens are notorious power suckers. Some companies are working on screens made from organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Right now, though, OLEDs are somewhat expensive. A few companies such as 3M are also looking at films that will let more of the light from LCDs through the screen, which in turn will improve brightness while curbing power consumption.

And watch out for novel ideas from companies like Liquavista, one of the great company names in high tech. The Philips spin-out uses a technology called electrowetting.

And for servers? Tubes filled with chilled water will start to become fixtures in server rooms. Some are also trying to harness the waste heat in server rooms for productive uses.