Green Computing

There are some very simple things that we can all do to reduce the energy we consume as computer users.

Use your PC longer between upgrades

Over 50 per cent of a piece of hardware's carbon footprint is created at the moment of manufacture. So if we use a computer for 5 years instead of 3 that makes a significant difference. Unless you or your family are playing the latest games a 1 GHz Pentium III will still be useable for web browsing and email. A simple way to make your PC faster is to re-install Windows every couple of years.

When buying a new computer it may well be a false economy to go for the cheapest computer. Spending just a few pounds more can provide you with a computer that will have a couple of years extra useful life.

Upgrade For Longer Life

Some simple upgrades can extend the life of your PC. No matter how fast, if your computer has 256MB or less of memory an upgrade to 512MB will speed it up no end. When reinstalling Windows a new disk drive can make a big difference to performance. Both upgrades are likely to cost between £20 and £50 depending on a number of factors.

Use More Efficient Hardware

When you do replace your computer use more efficient components. A flat screen LCD monitor uses about a third as much power as an equivalent CRT monitor and takes up much less room. An Intel Core Duo E6400 uses just half the power (65W) of the most power hungry processors available today (130W) and only a couple of watts more than the most frugal (62W) and is faster than nearly all. It also doesn't need such complicated cooling which saves more energy.

The most energy efficient computers are in fact laptops which consume one-quarter of the power of a typical desktop system. Prices of laptops have fallen to such an extent that they are competitive in price with desktop computers. But beware really cheap laptops are cheap for a reason. Either they are obsolete or they are likely suffer from poor build quality. The latter can seriously limit the life of a laptop.

All-in-one devices (printer, scanner and fax) can save space as well as energy. Watch out for expensive consumables. A set of printer cartridges is often as expensive as a new printer. It would be grossly wasteful to buy a new printer every time it runs out of ink besides the cartridges that come with a new printer are usually not full anyway.

Turn Off

When the computer is not in use turn things off. Don't regularly leave the computer on over night. Switch off at the wall because computers use power even when not turned on. Better still use a power strip with a circuit breaker to turn off everything together. If you only use a printer a couple of times a day turn it on when you first use it rather than it being on all day just-in-case. Turn off the monitor when you go to lunch.

Turn on power management, which all reasonably modern computers have built in, to allow various components to be powered down when they haven't been used for a while.

A few simple changes can save quite a bit of energy with minimal outlay. You save money and your carbon footprint is reduced at the same time. Win-win how often does that happen?

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry