Optimized Home

Overview

On average, your PC consumes somewhere between 200 and 400 watts, depending on its configuration and use. A high-performance gaming PC with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives, optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a large LCD monitor might consume as much as 750 watts. That’s more than your refrigerator consumes! If you leave the PC running nonstop, you could be paying an extra $50 on your monthly electrical bill.

Fortunately, there are several fantastic resources online to help minimize your PC power consumption. Below, we highlight some of the best tips and tools to reduce your utility bill with an energy-efficient PC.

Difficulty: Easy  (1 hour)

Tools needed:
- Kill-A-Watt energy usage monitor ($15 at Amazon.com)
- Energy Saving Smart Strip ($33 at Amazon.com)

Resources:

Edison- Free utility for the PC to optimize power settings
Local Cooling - Similar to Edison, helps estimate your power consumption savings
Green Print - Free utility that reduces the ink, paper and power costs when printing

Action Steps

1. Measure your current power consumption

Using the Kill-A-Watt usage monitor, you can measure the exact amount of power consumption for your PC (as well as any other electronic device or small appliance). This will feel like a game at first- you’ll measure the power consumption of everything that plugs into the wall and identify the power hogs. Once you know where to focus your attention, it is easy to optimize energy usage.

We’ll start with your PC. If you have a laptop, you’ll notice that they consume much less power by comparison.  The following articles will make sure you see a big drop in power consumption by your PC. The savings will easily pay for this device.

2. Easy Ways to Go Green with Your Computer [Lifehacker]

Highlights from the article:

• Use smart shut-down options on your computer
• Save paper when printing
• Estimate and monitor your power consumption

3. Top 10 Computing Energy Savers [Lifehacker]

• Replace your CRT monitor with an efficient LCD monitor
• Auto-dim your monitor
• Use an energy-conserving power strip
• Physically unplug charging adapters when not in use

4. General guidelines for an energy-efficient computer

Configure the hard drives to spin down when not in use. The tools listed above will help you do this. You can also do this via “Control Panel | Power” on Windows. It’s particularly helpful if you have multiple drives in a machine.

Configure the monitor to sleep when not in use. Again, the tools listed above will help you configure the timing and schedule of your monitor sleep mode.

Disconnect and unplug peripherals you don’t use. As a general rule, unplug any peripherals you have attached to your computer until they are absolutely needed. Then turn them off again when done.

Following the guidelines above will help you minimize the energy consumption of a potential power hog in your home. If you have multiple computers, the savings will add up fast.

Previous articles in this series:

Introduction - 30 Days to a more organized and efficient home
Day 1 - Know Your Home
Day 2 - Replace Your Lights with CFL Bulbs

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