As the years have gone by I have been able to have better energy conservation due to many factors. It is my hope by listing them below you can achieve better energy efficiency. Did you know that a 100 Watt bulb to light for a year takes 714 lbs of coal?
- Right size your equipment. I first started off with desktop machines because that was what was most affordable in up front costs. The downside is that they were very expensive to run and produced lots of heat. Remember those old CRT’s? Ask yourself if it’s really necessary to have a big screen, or if resolution is more important. If you play lots of games you may need a big screen and the best resolution but I would bet that most people probably don’t need this.
- Decide what your goal is for your purchase. I have seen many people in electronics store just get whatever is the most expensive or the cheapest because of ill-defined goals. I once helped a gentleman who bought the cheapest computer but then couldn’t play a WWII game on it because it was so underpowered. On the other end, I have seen people spend thousands on a high-end computer for “a new video hobby” and end up never doing that. To me, choosing newer technology is fine if it is going to be used in the lifetime for that hardware.
- Consider how often you will use it. Ok you know that you want a laptop, and that your goal is to use it for general business task. Now should you keep it in your dock connected to all the accessories or turn everything off every night? While there is some controversy if keeping equipment on or off is better, there is certainly an energy cost to it. Personally I turn off computers if I am not using them for several hours. There are power adapters that will turn off the energy vampires when you aren’t around. This one is only $19.
If you consider these 3 things carefully you will maximize functionality with power usage.
