Following on from an earlier discussion of green computing hardware, this article will go over a few simple things you can do to save energy, save money and reduce environmental emissions.
The first thing to do is to enable power management features. Enabling your computer’s “sleep mode” reduces its energy use by 60 to 70 percent. To enable these features under Windows, simply:
• Point your cursor at the desktop background and right-click
• Choose “Properties” from the pop up menu
• Go to the “Screen Saver” page; in the lower right-hand corner click the “Settings” button. This brings up another dialog box where you choose power management settings.
The recommended settings are 20 minutes for monitor sleep and 30 minutes for system sleep. Remember that to save energy with your monitor’s built-in power management system, your monitor must go to sleep (shut itself down).
When not in use, turn off the juice! This is the most basic energy conservation strategy for any type of equipment. Consider the following:
Turn off your computer and/or peripherals when they are not in use. Turning on and off will not harm the equipment (see below).
Don’t run computers continuously unless they are in use continuously.
Turn off at night and on weekends.
You Can Turn Your Computer Off! The common misconception that a computer’s life is shortened by turning it on and off has led some to leave computers on all the time. Desktop computers are designed to protect the internal circuitry from power damage from on/off switching. Turning PC equipment off at night or on and off a few times a day will not appreciably affect its useful life. Electronic equipment life is primarily a function of operating hours and heat — both these factors are reduced when equipment is switched off.
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