Going green on your desktop with energy optimization ideas
For successful power consumption in computers, four concepts are highly helpful; turning off the computer, utilizing power surge protectors, putting your computer on sleep mode to avoid boot up and shut off time wastage and lastly, disable your screen saver.
Green computing has been in existence since the 90’s when energy optimization (in Danish energioptimering) in computers was courtesy of Energy star. Even after other power consumption technologies came to play, it goes to show that green computing is still an upheld concept. And it becomes more relevant when the entire world is battling two vices; negative climate changes and energy depletion. You don’t need a Donald Trump influence to join the green computing campaign, just doing four basics can give a huge contribution to the energy saving conversation;
The ‘turn off formula; we run our computers for hours and we have less time in between where we let our desktops or laptops cool down. There are two scenarios where you definitely need to turn off your PC; if you are running a download or a CPU process that does not require monitor usage, it’s wiser to turn off the monitor and leave the CPU running. Whenever your PC is not in use for a period of 2 hours or more, again it’s important to switch it off. The lifespan of your computer depends on frequent energy optimization tricks like turning it off when not in use.
Utilize a power surge protector and strip; a power strip protector prevents more power intake of your PC when not in use. This is quite handy when you are turning off your computer; it’s true that a little power surge is produced which you can easily discard. But calculate the number of surges that happen each time you hibernate or shut off your computer and you will have a rough idea of how much energy goes to waste. A surge protector is your best energy optimization answer; if you have no access to power strip protectors, consider unplugging any PC components not in use like the printer or scanner.
Utilize the sleep mode option in your computer; some desktops or laptops take a longtime to boot up or shut down. It can be a huge waste of time and energy whenever we wait for them to load the start up window or shut off when not in use. Using the sleep mode option in your computer is a great energy optimization technique. The sleep button is the latest concept of Energy star and is capable of allowing two successive sleep modes in a given time span. When the computer is n sleep mode about 15watts of power is in use, which reduces to 8 watts in the next sleep mode.
Keep off the screen saver; your screen saver is great in promoting privacy whenever you are away from your PC, but do you know if it’s a power optimizer or a watt guzzler? From trusted energy optimization researches, your screen saver consumes loads of power when active and hinders the PC from auto-hibernating or going to sleep mode. You don’t need screen saver protection in this age of LCD monitors, so turn it off!
These four basics are all you need to make an impact in the global green computing campaign.
If you want to read more about energy renovation (as we say in Denmark energirenovering) follow this useful link.
