For Layla and myself, our lives revolve around the computer. We work on the computer every day as professional writers, so having a computer that works is important to us. However, at the same time, we have to think about how our computers will affect the environment since they run all day. We have thought of ways to deal with this, including buying a solar panel in the future to plug into, but what about other things we can do to save the environment while we work on our computers. (The picture shows a lot of computers, but we were in the process of transferring data from our old ones to our new ones.)First, by using the proper computer power management settings for our laptops, we can save about half a ton of CO2 per year, and $60 per year in energy costs. This would be using the minimal power settings.
Second, the days of needing a screen saver are gone with modern monitors that are not susceptible to the burning of an image on the screen. Therefore, we do not need to use a screen saver because the monitors will dim instead, to save power.
Third, speaking of dim monitors, we can dim the brightness on our monitor. Using the brightest setting on a monitor consumes twice the power of the dimmest setting.
Fourth, unless we are using the speakers, printers, or scanner,s they are going to be off. As well, at night the power bar for the computers goes off to keep from using phantom power, as we have discussed in a previous blog post.
Lastly, people should use laptops instead of desktops, as we do, because laptops use much less power than desktops.
Those are just a few tips that we will be using as we green our own computer use as part of Our Green Year.
One more note, Layla and I are on our way to reducing possessions by a great deal. We are putting up posters around our town this weekend advertising that we are giving away, for free, our bookcases, books, some appliances, chairs and other knick-knacks, while selling our patio set, table and chairs, vacuum and more.
