Greening Your PC - Old Tricks and New Tips

Did you know that a standard desktop personal computer can use 60-300 watts in average operating type while it can consume as much as 750 watts when used to play video games?  Yes, said energy consumption is equivalent to a standard-sized refrigerator.

Personal computers leave their marks on the environment due to their use of electricity that, in turn, produces coal-generated carbon emissions.  And that does not include the environmental costs in their manufacture and disposal.  However, you just cannot abandon the use of personal computers for the sake of the environment, not when the world depends on computers for making life easier on Earth.

The trick then is to use your desktop or laptop in more eco-friendly ways.  You can start with these green tips in mind.

Buy Green

Of course, the first process is to buy greener computer models.  You may use the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool, which uses 28 sustainability and efficiency criteria, to evaluate the eco-friendliness of the computers.  You will get that computers are graded through said tool through awarding gold, silver or bronze for overall performance.  Look to Dell and Hewlett Packard for inspiration.

Usually, these green computers will contain operating software that provides users with the choice of power management settings.  For example, Vista can power down if you are just using your computer for typing MSWord documents and power up when you are using programs such as the Adobe Premier Pro.

You should also look into the Energy Star label on the personal computer.  Said label was instituted next to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to guide buyers on the most energy-efficient home appliances.  In fact, whenever you buy new appliances, always look for the best possible Energy Star label.

Use Wisely

However, if you are't yet in the market for a new desktop or laptop, you can always adopt measures to lessen your environmental impact.  These old tips should help:

- Make your monitor more energy efficient through not using a screen saver and lessening its brightness setting, both of which consume more energy.

- Adjust the sleep cycle of your computer, which is possible in more recent operating software such as Windows XP and onwards.

- Use the power management system.  For example, the Macintosh and Windows-based operating systems permit for users to instruct the computer to turn off the hard drive and/or go into the sleep type after a pre-programmed quantity of time.

- Utilize the hibernation type of the computer, which will save you five watts of energy for the desktop model and one watt for a laptop.

The most important tip is, of course, to turn off the computer when it is not in use.  You can save tons of energy and lessen tons of carbon emissions when you adopt this green tip.  Besides, it does not make sense for your computer to be turned off for hours at a time without someone using it.  You won't be getting the desired mileage out of it which you want to have before changing to a newer model.

Your personal computer can be your ally in saving the environment if and when you know how to use it.  After all, how will you get and give more eco-friendly tips over the Internet if you don't have a computer?