Mommy Goes Green

When you aren’t actively using your computer, what does it do?  Stay on?  Hibernate?  At the end of the day, do you shut down or just log off?

With one simple change, Ford Motor is saving over $1 million annually – just by managing the power settings on company laptops and desktop systems.  It also reduced its carbon footprint by an estimated 16,000 to 25,000 metric tons annually.

You can make this simple change at home or at the office to have an impact on your energy use.

• Enable power management settings on computers and monitors so they go into “sleep mode” when away or not in use. At the minimum, set computers to enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity. To save even more, set monitors to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity. The lower the setting, the more energy you save.  On laptops, be sure to activate these settings in the AC power profile — not just the DC (battery power) profile.
• At the end of the day make sure to unplug your desktop or laptop – else, it will draw phantom power.

Additional ways to lower your computer’s energy consumption:

• Choose a laptop – laptop computers ( 15-45 watts ) use a fraction of energy compared to desktop ( 60-250 watts )
• Choose a LCD monitor – LCD monitors ( 35 watts ) use less energy than CRT monitors ( 80 watts )
• Purchase Energy Star qualified monitors and computers
• Plug all your computer peripherals into a Smartstrip so when your computer gets turned off – so do the peripherals.  Again – saving phantom power draws.

Curious how much energy you are using?  Wonder what tips would save you even energy (and money)?  Download Edison, a free energy monitoring software application.