This article is a tribute to the recent Earth Hour event.

Quote from USA Today:

The statistics from the said report come from offices in the US alone. Imagine the results if it included home PCs, or consolidated the data from around the world. The numbers from the report alone is already very disturbing. PCs left opened overnight waste too much energy, which could have been used for other purposes.

Energy, powering our PCs and other gadgets, does not come free. Energy companies burn fossil fuels in order to generate energy for the rest of us. As they burn fossil fuels, carbon dioxide is expelled into the air. Thus, not only do we contribute to wasting energy, we also contribute to air pollution. Believe it or not, only a small percentage of the energy we use come from reusable sources, such as hydroelectric plants or windmills. The problem lies on how we efficiently use the energy given to us; that the very small act can affect all of us to a great extent. We shouldn’t just sit here and wait for these companies to build more reusable energy plants. We might as well do our part. Besides, not only would it save the environment, but it also reduces the costs in your monthly bill.  

Thus, in no particular order, this article shall list some energy-saving tips you can do at home.

• Give your PCs some rest. CPUs generate heat, and the longer they stay turned on, the greater the heat it generates. Therefore, the cooling units exert more effort to maintain optimal temperature levels. More effort on their end means more energy is being used up.

• If you need a break, set your PCs on standby or hibernate mode. Do this when you need to go AFK for at least 20 minutes. If you have to be AFK for more than an hour, it’s better to turn off your PC.

• Instead of using screen savers, turn off your monitor instead.

• Remember that CRT monitors expend more energy than LCD monitors. Investing on an LCD monitor might save you more energy and cut costs on your bill in the long run.

• Did you know that showing white images in your monitor expends more energy? This is due to the exertion of the monitor to combine all colors of the spectrum to show whites. On the other hand, blacks use up lesser energy than the normal output (and for obvious reasons too). Why not try a dominantly-black wallpaper? Or a dark-themed visual style for your UI?

• Desktops also expend more energy than laptops. Investing on a laptop for economic purposes might not be a bad idea after all.

• Plug in laptop chargers only when you need to charge. Work on your laptop using the battery instead. This cuts energy usage and costs to almost half the usage in a constantly plugged-in laptop.

• Turn off speakers, printers, scanners, and other peripherals when not in use.

• Instead of using speakers, try wearing headphones instead. That’s one less electronic device to expend energy on.

• Remove CD/DVDs from your optical drives when not in use. The PC occasionally reads the optical disc to continually keep tabs on the data inside, a waste of energy if left unchecked.

• See those tiny standby lights on your TV, console, optical disc player (CD/DVD/Blu-ray, etc), and even on your voltage regulator / surge protectors? They also waste energy. The appliance still sucks up to 5% of energy and uses only a fraction of it just to power up that tiny LED. It’s better to unplug the appliance from the socket when not in use.

• Unplug mobile phone or laptop chargers when not in use. Some people have the habit of keeping the charger plugged in, with or without the gadget attached. You might notice, even with the phone or laptop fully charged, the battery area still generates heat. This means energy is still being transmitted from socket to battery. Or even without the gadget, the charger emits a small hint of heat. That’s energy wasted.

• Ever wonder what that Energy Star symbol stands for when you check your display properties? Believe it or not, a machine or appliance with an Energy Star symbol means it uses up lesser energy compared to a machine / appliance without it. For PCs, Energy Star machines have power down features that use up 70% less energy during sleep modes. Investing on machines with an Energy Star seal can cut costs significantly.

There you have it. Listed above is just a fairly short list of the things you can do to save energy and cut costs on your next bill. There are other things you can do to save energy or be as energy-efficient as possible; you just have to be aware with the appliances that you use. Also take note that the machines using up the greatest amount of energy are the ones that convert electricity to heat, or at least generate heat as a byproduct. Maybe you can use a frying pan instead of the bread toaster to toast your bread? Stuff like that helps. Think small, and you’ll find how big an impact it becomes in the long run. We’re not just gamers who run around and save the virtual world from evil; we can also be heroes of the environment (no matter how cheesy that sounds). We just have to accept this quest as part of the game called life.

I hope this serves as a lesson to all who read this article.

Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-03-25-pc-power-company-costs_N.htm
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/
http://www.energystar.gov/
 

 

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