New 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supplies Top 90 Percent Efficiency

From DailyTech: The idea for the 80 PLUS program was first presented five years ago, and it has been readily embraced by OEMs, consumers, institutions, and businesses as an easy way to reduce power consumption and save money. The certification program identifies computer Power Supply Units (PSUs) that achieve at least 80% efficiency at three specified loads (20%, 50% and 100%) of the maximum rated power of the PSU.

The program really took off when the US Environmental Protection Agency required 80 PLUS certified PSUs for their Energy Star labeling program in 2007. The latest version of Energy Star introduced this year requires Bronze level PSUs as a minimum.

As a result, research and development of energy efficient PSUs has taken off in the last few years, with steadily increasing efficiency. This is of particular importance for the datacenters on which the Internet depends. Corporations spend billions on electricity and cooling for datacenters, which means even a single percentage point increase in efficiency would save milions. Component reliability also increases due to the reduction in heat.

A new Platinum certification level is being introduced, specifically targeting 230V internal power supplies in datacenter servers. These PSUs must be at least 90, 94 and 91 percent efficient at 20, 50 and 100 percent of rated load, and provide a Power Factor Correction of .95 or greater.

HP is the first to introduce these new high efficiency power supplies. No doubt consumer versions will be coming along next year.

“Customers are looking for the highest level of energy efficiency in products to reduce their overall business costs and their impact on the environment,” said McLeod Glass, the Group Manager for Industry Standard Servers at HP.

As the first server manufacturer to partner with 80 PLUS on the new Platinum-level power supplies that deliver 94% power efficiency from the outlet to the server, HP is enabling its customers to optimize power usage and reduce energy costs.”

View: Article @ Source Site