ENERGY CONSERVATION

10 Easy Tips to Save on Your Computer Energy Usage and Run Your Computer Efficiently

Are you looking for ways to cut down on your computer energy usage and reduce electricity bill? Many computer owners do not bother with this at all thinking that computer uses much less energy compared to air conditioning units. Little did they know that implementing the following tips will help them not just reduce energy consumption but it will make their computer run more efficiently as well. Hopefully, after reading this article, you will realize the benefits you’ll get from following these tips.

1. Shut down your computer when not in use. Do not let it run all the time. You will not harm your computer by switching it on and off as needed. Computers are designed to be that way. Turning off an unused computer will not just reduce your electricity bill but will help cut carbon dioxide emissions as well.
2. Let it sleep after periods of inactivity.
3. Switch the monitor off when you won’t be using it for several hours.
4. Ditch your screensavers. Screensavers keep your CPU awake and hard drive active and make your computer use more energy. Screensavers especially photo screensavers may require the extra use of a graphics card, which means you’ll have the hard drive, graphics card and monitor all in use at once.
5. Utilize your computer’s power management features and modify power options. Here you can set the amount of time you want your computer to wait before entering energy savings mode.
6. Buy flat-screen monitors whenever possible. LCD monitor use about one-third of the electricity consumption of the traditional CRT monitors.
7. Close applications that are not in use.
8. Set the screen brightness at the lowest comfortable level.
9. If you do decide to purchase a new computer, make sure that you choose a computer and monitor that are Energy Star compliant. Energy Star compliant computers are said to be energy-efficient. If you need to use a computer all the time, try using a laptop instead of a desktop PC. In general, laptops are greener than desktops because they have been designed with power sensitivity in mind.
10. Unplug the chord off the wall after using your computer. Just because your desktop PC or laptop is shut down doesn’t mean it is not using energy. Many pieces of electronics use power even when they are turned off.