The release of Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” brought massive attention to a global issue that, previously only attracted the attention of scientists, and “tree huggers”. As a result of the huge attention drawn to the climate change crisis going green, becoming more eco-friendly, and conserving energy and resources has become quite a fashionable thing to do. There are ways to go green. You can make physical green changes such as replacing lighbulbs with more efficient LED ones, or converting your house to solar power. Green changes can also come in the form of lifestyle, such as remembering to turn lights of when exiting a room, turning the water off while brushing teeth, and taking shorter showers. Because this blog puts a large amount of stock in lifestyle – that is where the focus will be.
Computers are one of the pieces of technology that are most regularly integrated into a daily lifestyle. As people strive to make more eco-friendly choices, and live a greener lifestyle it only makes sense to allow them to incorporate technology into their lifestyle changes. By implementing the following # tips, computer users can begin a significant integration of their eco-friendly and technological lifestyles.
Turn it Off. In most households across the world, the night time is a time for sleeping and rest. Most people sleep between 5 – 8 hours per night. During these 5 – 8 hours, the house remains tranquil and possessions remain unused. However, more often then not computers are left running. It makes sense to turn of lights and televisions at night because they are not in use, so why not turn of the computer as well? Many claim that turning the computer on in the morning takes too much time. The simple solution is to turn the computer on, then accomplish another morning task such as taking a shower or eating breakfast while the computer gets itself ready. By the time the morning task is finished the computer will be ready. Turning a computer off at night can save up to $292 each year (based on the most energy consuming models).
Sleep Mode. Lights are easily turned off when not in use, and turning the computer off during the night while everyone sleeps sounds great, but during the day one never knows when they may need to use the computer next to check for an urgent email or print directions. Turning the computer completely off is sometimes completely impractical. By changing the computers internal settings, the user can allow the computer to go into a sleep mode after a certain time of unuse. Sleep mode uses 90% less energy than full power mode does. When the user needs to get back onto the computer, all that is required is a jiggle of the mouse and few second, and everything is back in action.
Sweat the Small Stuff. For the computer user out there who is super serious about living a super green lifestyle, there are a few more things that can be dome. Most computer monitors and laptops come equipped with a screen brightness option. Lowering the brightness level of the screen will also (marginally) cut the amount of energy that the computer consumes. Signing off the internet when it is not in use will also (very marginally) reduce the amount of energy used by computers.
For more in depth information on computers and a green lifestyle, and to find out which computer models use the least energy click over to Michael Bluejay’s website and check out his extensive research about computers and saving electricity.
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I used to leave my computer on the whole day and night, now I just put it in standby or hibernate it when I’m not using it.
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ethan Reply:
February 16th, 2009 at 5:21 am
It is good to hear that you are small steps to change your lifestyle, and make it environmentally friendly!
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