Green Living Ideas
EnergyGreen Living with Computers: How to Save Energy
Computers are one of the many aspects of our lives where green living can be enacted. There are a lot of small things anyone can do to save energy and live greener while still taking advantage of all that computers enable us to do.
One thing to keep in mind, however, when preparing to celebrate green living by saving energy with your computer is that computers are NOT at all the most significant energy-wasters in most households. Improve your green living by saving energy wasted by air conditioning and heat!
Turn it Off!
Practice green living by turning it off! Save energy by turning off the computer printer, scanner, photo printer, or other computer peripherals if you're not actively using them. For that matter, green living dictates that you shouldn't turn the computer or peripherals on until you're ready to use them anyway. Why waste energy when you don't need to? Leave the computer turned off until you're ready to sit down and use it.
Furthermore, it's a myth that it takes more energy to turn your computer back on than to leave it in sleep mode. If you don't plan to use your computer for the next hour, support green living and turn it off. On the other hand, if you will need your computer relatively soon, save energy by turning off the computer screen. This will save significant energy.
It's also a myth that screensavers are a part of green living. Screensavers basically save NO energy and can use more energy than sending an email (in the case of some animated screensavers). Instead, set your computer to automatically go to sleep or standby mode after it's inactive for more than 10 or 15 minutes. This is a way to support green living and save energy without even needing to think about it more than once!
Purchase a More Energy Efficient Computer
When making buying decisions about a new computer, consider these good green living tips. Laptops use a lot less energy than desktops. And generally, whether you're a Mac or PC fan, Apple computers tend to use less energy than PCs. Since 2001 all Apple computers have earned the EPA's Energy Star rating, a great green living feat. And finally, if you want to practice green living when purchasing a computer, buy an LCD (instead of a more traditional CRT) monitor. LCD monitors save a lot of energy over their older counterparts.
Don't Print
This simple green living message will not only save the energy of the printer, but also the paper and ink waste. If you do need to print a multiple page document, be sure to tell the computer to print only those pages you need. Printing from the web, for instance, often involves printing an extra page at the end with the website's footer. Do you really want that? Then, when you print, green living would suggest that you print on both sides of the paper. Unless it's an official document, you can save paper by printing on both available surfaces.
