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?