Reduce Energy Costs – Your Computer

Pretty much everyone uses computers these days, and many people spend their whole days sitting down with their laptop or desktop. Because they’re so ubiquitous, optimizing your computer’s energy settings is one of the most important steps you can take to reducing your energy costs.

Power Settings

The first thing you want to do is go into your computer’s Power Settings and adjust them as low as possible. Most desktop computers these days will have a separate Power Settings menu, and all laptops will feature this window. For the most part, you’ll be able to choose between Maximum Power, Recommended Settings, and some type of Power Saver mode. Most computers will come set at Recommended by default, but it’s not uncommon to check and find out you’ve been set to Maximum this whole time.

Most people don’t use their computer for much more than browsing the internet, watching videos, and running a word processor. Unless you are running a ton of different resource demanding applications, it’s likely you’ll do just fine with Power Saver mode. In fact, after a couple of days you probably won’t even notice any changes in your computer’s performance or appearance.

Screen Brightness and Sleep Mode

Aside from the above sweeping changes, there are a couple of other internal tweaks you can make towards reducing the energy costs of your computer. One of the most meaningful changes you can make to your computer’s energy consumption is to reduce the brightness on your monitor. Most of us don’t need a blindingly bright monitor at all times, and will adapt very quickly to a slightly darker monitor. Try setting your monitor’s brightness down a notch every day until you reach its minimum brightness level to make adaption as easy as possible.

You should also tweak your settings so your computer goes to sleep faster than usual. Most people just leave their computers running at all times and don’t realize that this bad habit wastes a lot of energy. While all computers are given the capacity to automatically go to sleep after a certain period of inactivity, most computers won’t power down until you’ve been away from them for at least an hour. By adjusting these settings so your computer will shut down after only a few minutes of inactivity, you can greatly reduce the energy it consumes when you aren’t even using it.

Get a New Computer

If your computer is even a few years old than it’s likely to waste a lot more energy than a newer model will. Like most appliances and gadgets, new computers are being developed more energy efficient and “green” than ever before. If your computer is relatively new, or if you aren’t able to afford a new one, than consider replacing some of its peripherals with “greener” models to reduce your energy costs.

For example, consider getting what’s called a “SmartStrip.” This is a power strip that will automatically stop feeding power to any computer peripherals when your desktop or laptop is powered down. If you have even just a monitor and a printer plugged in at all times, your SmartStrip can help reduce your energy expenditure by nearly 100 watts an hour.

The Real Payoff

While all the above will certainly save you money, they will also greatly reduce your carbon footprint. Saving money every year is great, but removing an extra ton or two of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere is often its own reward.