HP Releases Energy-Efficient Business PCs

HP has released a variety of energy-efficient desk-based products for business customers.

HP’s Compaq dx2250 Desktop PC features energy-efficient processors. HP also plans to offer 80 percent efficient power supplies on select desktop business PCs. The optional power supplies offer greater energy savings to customers and will allow HP to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently announced ENERGY STAR 4.0 requirements in January 2007 -? a full six months before the new guidelines take effect.

HP additionally announced a trade-in program to make it more affordable for customers to obtain thin client technology -? which uses the lowest watt processors of any business computing option.

The HP Compaq dx2250 Business Desktop microtower PC is available with a range of high-performance AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core, AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Sempron processors.

This January, HP’s 80 percent efficient power supplies will be an option for the recently introduced HP Compaq dc7700, dc5700 and dc5750 series desktop PCs.

In a typical commercial building, as much as 10 to 15 percent of the overall energy bill is driven by energy consumption of the power supplies used in most business technology. The new 80 percent efficient power supplies are 33 percent more efficient than current power supplies because they reduce the power drawn in waste heat that is dispersed into the environment. This is according to 80 PLUS, an electric utility-funded incentive program focused on integrating more energy-efficient power supplies into desktop computers and servers. HP is the first major PC manufacturer to support the program.

HP laboratory tests reveal existing HP business desktop customers could improve power efficiency as much as 45 percent by switching to a next-generation system featuring an 80 percent efficient power supply. As systems are more richly configured, the savings with the new power supply increases, with the potential to save large enterprises with thousands of PCs deployed tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) near Seattle has tested an 80 percent efficient power supply in its newest HP business PCs and found a significant savings potential.

“Our initial tests indicate that we would have an average annual savings of about 125 kWh per PC using these more efficient power supplies. Additionally, the reduction in harmonics will allow Snohomish PUD to have almost twice as many PCs powered from each electrical circuit,” said Scott Gibson, senior engineer, Snohomish County PUD.