Bright idea: Verdiem offers free energy-monitoring software

I've written a fair amount about Verdiem, which sells enterprise power management software called Surveyor that happens to be loaded up onto some of Hewlett-Packard's green-er PC models. Well, this week the company is releasing a free consumer application called Edison that can be used to manage your desktop computer's energy consumption.

Edison provides the following features: 1. The ability to schedule different power usage schedules. 2. Preconfigured power usage settings. 3. Reports that show how much can be saved by adjusting your PC's power profile (estimated in dollars and cents, kilowatt-hours of electricity, or carbon emissions diverted). 4. Sliding scales so that you can see the impact of various usage scenarios before you adopt them.

Here's the latest stat on how much client-side technology (not just data centers) contributes to worldwide energy use: approximately 506 billion kilowatt-hours per year, or the carbon equivalent of 70 million cars on the road. According to Intel executive Lorie Wigle, who is president of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, carbon emissions could double by 2020 based on the high-tech industry's anticipated growth.

Here's the link for the Edison download. Sorry Mac users, Edison requires either Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista. Microsoft was a big part of the Edison launch, so I guess this shouldn't be surprising. Anyway, Verdiem is challenging PC users to download 10 million copies within the next 12 months. Have at it.