If you are like me then you leave your computers on constantly and may see the effect reflected in your electric bill each month. Depending on how much of an impact the running of your machines is on your life financially, it might be in your interest to learn some ways to save on power consumption when not in front of your computer.
First, if you don’t use your computer on a daily basis, consider shutting it down or using standby mode. If you do use it daily, but aren’t sitting in front of it the majority of the time, consider removing any screen saver you might be using (as some can be very intensive on the CPU and monitors) and just allow your display to go into standby after a timeout (around 15 minutes). If you don’t customize your Desktop background with pretty pictures like some people, then you could opt for a plain black background to help save the energy that would be needed to power the pixels. To prove the impact of such a simple idea as using black instead of white pixels on your screen, the website Blackle.com provides the search capabilities of Google, but with an all black design. The site claims that if people used Blackle instead of Google, the global impact would be a savings of 750 Megawatt-hours per year. Pretty significant.
It is also recommended that you reduce your screen’s brightness, turn off peripherals that aren’t used often, and actually disconnect devices when they are turned off to avoid trickle charge. Using any combination of these tips will help save you some money and help reduce our power consumption.