If you turn your head and have a quick look around your home, you’ll find that there are plenty of energy-draining appliances dotted around. Many of them are essentials that
you can’t do without, but even more are non-essentials that we use for entertainment. These consume a significant portion of our household energy, with 5% of our energy usage attributable to computers, laptops and printers. And yet, with a few simple changes, it’s easy to significantly cut costs and save energy. Here are some top tips to turn things around.
#1 Good (For the Planet) Things Come in Small Packages
One of the easiest ways to save energy is to replace your old desktop and computer monitor with a much smaller laptop, as laptops are far more efficient than the traditional computer set-up.
#2 Upgrading – For the Common Good, Of Course
Manufacturers are increasingly working to make laptops, desktops and monitors more energy-efficient. The difference in energy consumption between LCD or LED monitors when compared with old-style tube or CRT monitors is staggering, so upgrading to a newer, more energy-efficient version is a way to treat yourself to an upgrade and help the planet in one fell swoop.
#3 Use Voltage Optimisation Products in Your Home or Office
If you want to make the most of your electricity and use it as efficiently as possible, then it might be worthwhile to install an energy saving unit in your home or office to power your laptop, computer, printer, etc. Although these have quite a high initial outlay, in the long-run they save money and significantly cut down emissions. Retailers such as Critical Power Supplies estimate that their offerings pay for themselves in financial savings within three years, and they can reduce carbon emissions from your hardware by up to 20%.
#4 Switching Off
A major benefit of newer machines is their ability to switch on and power down at speed, which should reduce the temptation for you to leave your computer on unnecessarily. Leaving it running is a sure fire way to waste energy, so one of the easiest ways to conserve that energy is simply to turn your computer or laptop off when it’s not in use.
#5 A Little Bit of Shut-Eye
As a rule, computers tend to use a similar amount of power whether they’re busy or idle, which means that if you leave them doing nothing, they use almost as much energy as if they’re number crunching or accessing information. Simply switch to ‘sleep’ mode to avoid this.
#6 Hibernating
Make use of your power-saving setting to cut down your energy bills. Most computers will have one in your preferences section. This is usually called either ‘sleep’ or ‘hibernate’ and will turn off the monitor after a specified period of inactivity. With an old tube/CRT monitor, this can cut energy usage by up to 50%.
#7 Night-Time Black-Out
There is absolutely no reason to leave your computer on overnight, unless you’re planning on leaving it switched on for the computer elves that sneak into your house when the lights go out. Turn off your machine and any peripheral devices, such as your printer and scanner, before you climb into bed.
Save money and save the planet in seven easy steps – what’s not to like about that?
Article by , Elizabeth Hill
Posted By Ross Deprey
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