Energy Conscious Computer Usage

A California lawmaker recently made news with his plan to ban the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs in the state by 2012. He believes that these inefficient bulbs waste energy and contribute to the greenhouse gasses that are blamed for global warming.

He’s right.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 25 percent less energy than their incandescent elders. Not only do fluorescent bulbs use less energy, they can also save you between $40 and $55 per bulb during their lifespan.

As I read the story on-line, I began to think about how much energy my computer wastes while it’s not in use. Despite being a heavy computer user, each of my desktop computers is generally idle for more than 15 hours per day.

Even with the power save features enabled, there is still quite a bit of time where the PC and monitor are running and not being used. And, don’t forget about those peripherals such as printers, speakers and scanners that may run continuously while they suck up energy and inflate your monthly electric bill.

According to the Energy Star Web site, Energy Star-labeled computers are required to power down to 15 percent of their maximum power use by their power save features. Power hungry monitors are required “to power down to 15 watts or less after 15 to 30 minutes of inactivity and down to 8 watts after 70 minutes of activity. A new ENERGY STAR specification for monitors that goes into effect on January 1, 2005 requires that the monitor only draw 4 watts or less in sleep mode. By January 1, 2006, the sleep mode is 2 watts or less.”

While we go through our house and upgrade light bulbs in an effort to conserve energy, lower our monthly bills, and reduce greenhouse gases, I believe that we should also begin to think of how to more efficiently use our computer equipment.

In order to do my part, I am going to try and implement the following changes in my household and at work. Hopefully you will also consider to follow some of these ideas.

• Turn off computer equipment when it is not in use.


• Ensure that power save features are enabled so that equipment left running will be more efficient.


• Reduce the number of computers in the house. Do we really need four computers?


• Recycle all computer and electronic devices.

These few improvements require changing a few habits, but nothing earth shattering. If everyone who owns a computer turns off their computer equipment when it isn’t in use, Ed Begley might not have to turn off as many things when he runs his outdoor water fountain.