Who are the Energy Hogs in Data Centers?

I found this web site www.energyhog.org with a wikipedia referenceimage

Energy Hog is an energy efficiency campaign developed by the Ad Council and run by the Alliance to Save Energy that engages children and raises awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency. He is a villainous character who wastes energy in the home.

The campaign is a non-profit effort with more than twenty sponsors, including The Home Depot, the U.S. Department of Energy, and several state energy offices.

[edit] Goal

The main goal of the Energy Hog campaign is to raise awareness of energy efficiency so that people can save money on their energy bills which were expected to rise throughout the winter of 20052006.

[edit] Criticisms

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats called the new campaign "a toothless" energy savings program following an inaccurate media report

And, it got me thinking who are the Energy Hogs in the data center industry. The largest consumers? Or those that use it the most inefficiently? Given the secretive nature of data centers are you hog if you don't share your energy efficiency best practices.

For an interesting example of Energy Hog behavior check out this article on Aspen vacation homes: 61% of the energy consumption is from vacation homes even though they are occupied only 90 days a year on average.

Aspen vacation homes: Energy hogs

Sprawling, little-used second homes sock it to Aspen by generating most of its residential greenhouse gases

By Steve Lipsher Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 08/30/2007 03:12:59 AM MDT

Construction continues on a 15,000-square-foot home on Red Mountain, overlooking Aspen and the town's ski hill. The average single-family home in Aspen measures 3,272 square feet. (Special to The Post / Zach Ornitz)

With their heated driveways, outdoor hot tubs and 24-hour surveillance systems, Aspen's vacation homes each use more electricity than a block of average American homes, a new study reports.

As a result, the luxurious second homes generate most of the town's residential greenhouse gases, even though many of them are occupied only a few weeks each year.

They emit more carbon than Aspen's fully occupied homes, according to the study by the Sopris Foundation.

"I suppose if you make a million dollars or more, and there are several people in Aspen who do - many, actually - you can afford the utility bills," said Richard Heede of Climate Mitigation Services, who conducted the study.

Still, Heede was surprised to find that second homes generate 61 percent of the town's residential carbon dioxide emissions - the main man-made greenhouse gas - even though they are unoccupied an average of 277 days a year.

Aspen vacation homes each generate 43.8 tons of carbon dioxide a year compared with 32.4 tons by each full-time, single-family residence, the report calculates.

The average U.S. household with four people generates between 30 and 40 tons of carbon dioxide a year, depending on elements such as its type of heating fuel, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's carbon calculator.

Aspen's vacation homes are often much larger than locally owned homes and use, even when empty, as much energy as full-time residences, Heede said.

"Many energy demands are unnecessary and egregious, such as driveway heating, roof-melt systems, hot tubs (and) towel-bar heaters," he said.

Then there are the whirring motors of cigar humidors and wine cellars, and the flicking on and off of 24/7 floodlights, the report says.

While disproportionate energy use in second homes exists in every mountain-resort community, it is most pronounced in Aspen, where conspicuous consumption is a status symbol and there are 150 homes exceeding 10,000 square feet.