Global warming and energy-power loss are serious concern for mankind (atleast as long they stay on Earth). From organizations to businesses to normal users everyone needs to go green in order to achieve clean and less money consuming electric bills. Today, we start a “Eco-Computing campaign” for everyone to save their PC-power, make most of it and thereby, less power bills. here some of the simple tips to start with:
>> SWITCH-OFF. A typical 150-watt PC consumes about 876 kilowatt hours per year. At an electric rate of 10 cents per kWh, that’s $87.60 a year, before taxes and fees! It is NEVER bad to turn off the computer. Computers are now designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles. This is considerably more cycles than the average user will initiate in the computer’s 5-7 year life span. Turning your computer off helps reduce heat stress and wear on the system. The surge of power used by a CPU to boot up is far less than the energy used by the unit when left on for over 3 minutes. By turning off your PC and peripherals when they’re idle, and by employing power management while they’re on, you can cut energy consumption dramatically. If you use your computer 6 hours a day, you could save 75 percent or more.
>> NETWORK NEVER DIES. By turning off your broadband modems and routers when not in use, you also make your network more secure. Some power strips have timers that automate this task–but don’t use such a strip for your computer, external storage device, or anything else that could lose data if turned off inadvertently. Also remember, Network connections are NOT lost when a PC goes into low-power/sleep mode. Newer computers are designed to sleep on networks to prevent loss of data or connection. CPU’s with Wake on LAN (WOL) technology built-in to network cards can be left in sleep mode overnight to wake-up and receive data packets sent to the unit.
>> POWER SAVERS. Enable power management software to put computers in low-power mode when not in use.
>> MANDATORY. Tell workers to turn off printers, monitors, computers and other desktop devices when they leave work. A typical multifunction laser printer and fax machine uses 300 watts when printing, 85 watts when on standby, and 10 watts when idle. To reduce your electric bill, plug your peripherals into a power strip and turn off the strip when you shut down your PC. (It’s safest to keep the PC and monitor plugged into an uninterruptible power supply.
unplug all the wall chargers for PDAs, music players, digital cameras, and other gadgets when you’re not actually charging, or use the power-strip trick mentioned above to shut them off. They can draw up to 5 watts per hour apiece, even when nothing’s plugged into them. Laser printers and fax machines in particular are energy spendthrifts.
>> DISCIPLINE. Choose specific times for off-hours maintenance and Increase your memory (RAM) to reduce disk usage.
>> NEW UPGRADES. Consider energy-efficiency products such as thin clients, LCD monitors or Energy Star-rated PCs. An LCD monitor uses about one-third the power of a CRT display with the same screen area. You’ll also save energy by switching from a desktop PC to a laptop, and from a laser printer to an inkjet. A typical laptop uses about one-quarter the power of a similarly equipped desktop.
>> SCREENSAVER POWER LESSER. To get to your computer’s power-management settings in Windows XP or 2000, right-click the Desktop and choose Properties,Screen Saver. Click the Power button to the right of the Energy Star icon, and select the Power Schemes tab of the Power Options Properties dialog box. For desktop PCs, choose the Home/Office Desk power scheme (it’s likely on by default). Under ‘Turn off monitor’ and ‘Turn off hard disks’, pick times you feel comfortable with: ‘After 15 mins’ for the monitor and ‘After 30 mins’ for the hard drive strike a nice balance between saving power and being a nuisance.
>> SLEEPY. Save energy when your computer is not shut down completely by setting the power management into “sleep†mode after a certain amount of non-use.
KEEP WATCHING. WE’LL BE BACK WITH MORE GREENER PC TIPS.