Last year, ex-Midnight Oil frontman turned Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett took TVs to task, mandating that they should carry energy rating stickers like fridges. This year, he’s doing the same to your PC and monitor.
According to Karen Dearne over at Australian IT, the regulation will begin with the humble PC and monitor, but eventually extend out to data centres and storage farms. Ratings could appear on your next PC as early as late 2010, and the government is also looking at taking the ratings system to other gadgets, like fax machines.
Being more aware of energy usage in gadgets is a good thing, ultimately. But I really don’t look forward to the day that I go to buy a pair of computer speakers and there’s one of those big ass stickers covering the entire thing. Maybe they could make the stickers smaller?
Nathan
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 1:25 PMLove the wallpaper on that Mac :-P
Martin Olminkhof
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 1:46 PMand what about DIY PCs? energy rating on video cards?
Ollie
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 2:07 PMSo how the hell are they going to regul… err rate those of us that build our own machines then?
*looks at 1kW PSU…*
I can tell this will just turn into some ugly marketing tool for the big players.
Thomas Hambleton
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 12:05 AMIf you’d stop for one minute and use your brain, you’d realise that the government can’t and would never want to rate DIY PCs, it’s purely for pre-packaged boxes.
What WOULD be interesting is what happens to your local Yum-Cha computer store, but i’d bet on a loophole or exception for them.
Crowknee
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 2:31 PMI still find it strange that a nuclear energy supporter (and uranium mine supporter) can pursue these “green” policies without hating himself…
Lance Royce
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 3:57 PMGarrett is a total moron and nothing surprises me what this Socialist Labor Government has in store for Australia!
Rémy Samuel
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 8:20 PMI don’t think Apple will like having those big ass stickers on their products, and when Apple doesn’t like doing things, Apple just doesn’t do them.
I say Apple specifically, because PC packaging is so cluttered as it is that it really wouldn’t make a noticeable difference.
DONAR
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 9:09 PMInternet filters, still no R rating for games and energy ratings on PCs and monitors?? I’m so glad my taxes are paying for things that are important to me…
How much of this will be moot when they’re “rated” out of office?