The Sustainable Network

Basic Consumption Reduction

Due to the explosive growth of the network and the sheer demand created by all the people and devices plugged in at your home, we are not that far away from home data centers. It probably won't be long before you are sporting a rack in your basement with its own cooling, like a wine cellar, or perhaps you will lease space at the neighborhood cloud. Before then, consider some of the efficiencies that the big boys implement:

General Tips for Facilities

• Automate building controls (from lights to building temperatures to timing of sprinkler systems) to make it easier to shed loads and make adjustments that can have significant energy savings.

• Work with your utility provider to determine the timeline for the installation of a smart meter at your home, or, if one's installed, start regularly checking on your daily (even hourly) consumption to understand and make more informed decisions about your energy use. Check out applications, such as iControl (www.icontrol.com/), that allow you to control all your networked devices from your iPhone to manage and reduce consumption.

• Install energy-efficient heating and cooling systems; apply double-sided window film or other window coverings to prevent large temperature fluctuations due to outside conditions.

• Phase out less efficient devices; choose energy-efficient solutions (printers, servers, desktops, monitors, and, of course, networking equipment).

• Encourage energy conservation; turn off lights when leaving a room and shut ...