Carbon Control Software Development Blog

Carbon Control Software Home Edition New Version Released

2008-07-21T16:55:00.023+01:00

Brand new version of the home version of the popular Carbon Control Software has been released in conjunction with the launch of the new CarbonEarth website.

The latest release allows CarbonEarth members to customise their own personal avatar and to compare their savings and statistics with their CarbonEarth friends live on their desktop!

All these fantastic features are available to download for home users completely FREE!

NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 1.1.0!

Personalise your application with your very own custom built WeeMee avatar!
"WeeWorld" is a trademark of WeeWorld. Other product and company names mentioned on this web site may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

You can access the "WeeWorld" website here.
Compare your savings and statistics with your CarbonEarth friends right on your desktop!

KEY FEATURES

Switch off system automatically when home PC is left unattended

Customise your own personal energy saving policy to suit your needs at home

Define your own energy supplier tariff and system wattage settings to get accurate personal savings

View your savings live in terms of energy saving, carbon reduction and cost savings

Upload data to the global carbon disclosure network CarbonEarth and share your savings with the world

ADDITIONAL EXTRAS

Specify critical software applications which may be affected by energy saving policies to avoid disruption

Enable computer utilisation check to ensure that system is truly idle before enforcing energy saving policy

Enforce manual system suspension operations at the click of a button

Update your energy monitor client automatically using our auto update system

DOWNLOAD CARBON CONTROL SOFTWARE HOME EDITION (1.1.0)

System Requirements

Windows XP SP2/SP3 or Windows Vista*

256MB RAM & 7MB free disk space

*Vista installation must run as administrator [?]

Click Here To Download

New Management Centre Released

2008-07-21T15:16:00.004+01:00

Carbon Control Software were pleased to announce earlier last week the launch of the new Management Centre.

A tool designed to enable easy access to and management of all features of CCS, Management Centre is a direct replacement for the previous Database Administration Tool.

Utilising the latest programming technologies to give a clean and easily understandable interface, Management Centre was designed with the client in mind. Setting policies with a simple click of a button, organising your company structure with drag-and-drop and one-page management of settings are just a few of the new features of Management Centre.

At present, the current suite of CCS products now include:

- Service Management Console
- Management Centre
- Online Reporting Tool
- Client Monitor
- CarbonEarth

Green, Lean, and Carbon Mean

2008-01-28T09:40:00.000Z

It's in the news almost every day and sadly its in the air we breath. Carbon emissions are becoming a more noticeable threat in our day to day lives. Our planet is struggling to cope with the ever increasing human population and its consumption needs. Like a plague of locusts we are slowly ravaging the Earth of all of its natural resources and what do we give back? Carbon emissions!

No matter how we look at it the human species is slowly setting the wheels of destruction in motion. Fueled by a need to consume more and more in order to lead the lives we do, we are now emitting more and more carbon emissions every day. The media go on and on about the ever changing climate and the damage we are doing. They highlight the polar ice caps melting and the rain forests shrinking. They even get you looking to the sky at the plane flying over head and muttering under your breath something about the aviation industry being a major contributor to this planets slow decline into no return. But I say stop looking up and look down at that little box and screen you call your PC. This little metal box and all of its buddies are just as guilty if not more than that of the aviation industry, and that include military flights according to Gartner. With over a billion PC's now world wide the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector is releasing up to 2% of carbon emissions generated every year. Your own personal PC is part of this unholy cycle but more importantly so is your work place. So what can you do to make a difference?

Here at the Carbon Control Software Head Quarters our software development team strives to ensure that our product provides a simple to use, simple to administer, and simple method of carbon reduction which also incorporates the disclosure of your PC emissions. The Carbon Control Software (CCS) will allow you to set energy management, and Health & Safety, policies to better manage your PC networks energy consumption needs. During inactive periods CCS will be able to engage a predefined energy saving policy putting the PC in question into a state of Standby, Hibernate, or Shutdown. This means less energy consumption than if it were to be left running with or without a screensaver. This obviously has a major bonus on other aspects such as a reduction in your energy bill and Carbon Footprint. When these policies are utilised they are recorded and uploaded to CarbonEarth where your Pc emissions are displayed to the world in an open and free manner.

For more information on Carbon Control Software or CarbonEarth please visit www.carboncontrolsoftware.com or www.carbonearth.net respectively.

Exposing Carbon Emissions

2008-01-07T16:04:00.000Z

Isn't it interesting to find out just how much carbon is emitted by each person and business in your area? It's an interesting notion. If your neighbour has a very heavy carbon footprint, are they harming you or your family? Just how bad an impact is that new business at the bottom of your road having on your local area?

The aim of CarbonEarth (http://www.carbonearth.net) is to allow users to expose their carbon footprints, and then show the world just what they are trying to do to reduce and manage their emissions.

Join in with the social networking and share your eco-ideas with your friends or simply browse the map to see the carbon footprints of those in your local area.

CarbonEarth... For Everyone's Tomorrow Let's Do It Today!

www.carbonearth.net

How big a culprit is the IT industry?

2008-01-07T12:05:00.000Z

There are different opinions about what effect the yearly carbon emissions from the global IT industry really can have on the environment. The Gartner Group has estimated that emissions from the IT industry is about 600 million tons of CO2.

To put this into some perspective, let us look to Norway. The country is regarded one of the most developed countries in the world, and has an estimated total yearly carbon emission of 50 millions tons. In other words, the yearly emissions from the IT industry equals 12 years emissions from Norway. Let's get our "IT acts" together and do something about it. Spread the word, and use CCS!

People in glass houses...

2008-01-03T12:30:00.000Z

Shouldn't throw stones... ? Well i figured that the fact I have three or four computers on permanently at my house it was about time I started practicing what I preach. I have disconnected the monitors from all but one of them and I use remote desktop to access the others. which I have now turned OFF when I'm not using them. the trouble is now that they aren't on all the time my wife is starting to ask why I needed them at all.... and to be honest its hard to justify it. ( Geeks just love their toys) Anyone need a second hand PC? ;-)

Emissions From PC's Worse Than Airlines

2007-12-24T13:49:00.000Z

Carbon emissions from computing are now approaching those of aviation, according to new research to be published on Monday.

The report, by environmental campaign group Global Action Plan, will say that IT now accounts for 10% of the UK's annual energy consumption.That is the equivalent of four nuclear power station's worth of electricity and 1 billion tonnes of CO2 worldwide.But unlike our budget-airline guilt, we seem to feel little eco-conscience in the office.

We print out enough paper every year to pile 8,000 miles high, almost half of which we will throw away and one in three of us never turns off our computer.

"When people think of carbon emissions they think of planes, they think of cars, but they don't think about the humble computer sitting on your desk," said Trewin Restorick, the report's author.

"But we need to realise that every time we use a computer it's helping to put more carbon into the atmosphere."

The scientific consensus is that we are already facing the prospect of catastrophic and irreversible climate change in the long term. But the report will say in the shorter term there is a danger the lights in the UK will quite simply go out.

"We're already hearing about companies within the city saying their growth is being restricted because we physically can't get enough energy into London, so we're restricting growth."

PC Power Consumption - Save The Planet Today

2007-12-21T16:20:00.000Z

More than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because many of us simply forget to shut down our computers when we’re not using them. If we could just improve the efficiency of how we use our PCs, the savings in energy costs would be over $3 billion! The CO2 emissions from just 15 computers are equivalent in energy terms to the gas consumption used by one car.

A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons and produces an average 556 kilowatt hours of electrical power. Now consider your computer. A good spec PC can use up to 200 watts per hour. If you have a CRT monitor, it adds a further 80 watts (TFT screens use less). So your system is consuming over 1 KWh of power for every four hours of normal use. If you leave your computer on 24/7, that’s the equivalent of a whole barrel of oil every 90 days! If you optimize your computer with Carbon Control Software and power down when you’re not using it you could extend this to over six months!

Remember, if you leave the PC on with just a screen saver on the CRT when you’re not using it, it’s STILL using up to 280 watts per hour of completely wasted power. Power that pumps out 1.5lbs of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere for every KWh. If left on for 24 hours that’s 9lbs of CO2 every day and 3,285lbs per year. That’s more than 1.6 tons of CO2 thrown up into the atmosphere just to keep your one single PC working.

Join CarbonEarth and download Carbon Control Software, start saving power at home today!

The Birth of Carbon Control Software

2007-12-21T07:25:00.000Z

So there was this guy. Hit by an epiphany he set out to reduce carbon emissions generated by the ITC industry. That man was Stephen Grant, founder of Carbon Control Software (CCS).

From this tiny spark CCS has begun to grow and looks set to continue to do so at a rapid rate. Aimed at helping to reduce Carbon emissions of PC's through efficient utilisation of energy consumption required, CCS can not only help to lower an organisations CO2 levels but also their energy bill.

Its been in development for a good few months now and I must admit it has come a long way.Why not join us in helping to lower the CO2 generated by the worlds PC's by visiting CarbonEarth and registering for your free home version. Any organisations out there that want to participate should contact us directly to learn more.

Look to your PC and not to the sky!

Dave Anderson
Carbon Control Software
Commercial Team