Tips on how to save Electricity – Computers

Computers have become a vital part of our lives nowadays. Computers used to be almost solely used to process data and for specialized business purposes such as Desktop Publishing, Database for Businesses, and Programming. Now we use computers for Blogging, MultiMedia Entertainment, and Gaming. The computer has evolved into a multipurpose workhorse which can be used both as a source of information and entertainment. As the computer now offers more capabilities, this also means that it is used more often and it now consumes more electricity. So, we must learn some CHEAPSKATE ways to save electricity while using our computers.

Desktops

Laptops

General (applicable to both Laptop and Desktop PC’s)

Tips on how to save Electricity - Computers : Desktops

1. Get an LCD Display
Typically, almost half of the Power Consumption of computers are consumed by the Monitor. If you are using a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) type monitor, your display may be actually using more Electrical Energy than the PC. Even the newest Energy Efficient CRT monitors still consume 90 – 100 Watts of Electrical Energy when it is turned on. Compare that to an LCD display, which uses only around 25 – 40 Watts.

2. Use a Power Efficient PSU
Most desktop computers today run with a 300 – 350 Watts Power Supply Unit or PSU. The newer ones offer 500 Watts, and even 1000 Watts! Does this mean that the computer is consuming electrical Energy equal to the Wattage of the PSU? The answer, wonderfully, is no.

The PSU Wattage Rating which you see in the PSU is what can be called as “Maximum Effective Wattage”. This means that the wattage indicated on the PSU rating is the maximum power the PSU can supply to the computer system. If your computer has a 350 Watts CPU, it doesn’t mean the computer consumes 350 Watts. It just means that the PSU can deliver a maximum of 350 Watts into your system. The actual Energy Consumption that the computer uses depends on the devices that actually consume electrical energy such as the processor and motherboard. This is the reason why some branded PC’s such as HP and Dell still use 250 Watts Energy Efficient PSU’s to run their latest PC’s, while some computer systems use 500 Watt PSU’s to run the latest microprocessors.

Some PSU’s do operate at a lower Power Efficiency. Meaning that it consumes a slightly larger amount of electrical energy than what the PC components really need. The most Energy Efficient PSU’s can often be seen in Barebone Systems such as the Shuttle XPC’s. The high price of these Barebones isn’t only because they look good, but they use Energy Efficient PSU’s as well. Brand Name PSU’s such as ANTEC and HEC costs more, but they do tend to be more power efficient and is also more stable.

2. Use Built-in components of the Motherboard
As I mentioned in the PSU explanation, the energy consumption of your PC largely depends on your system’s configuration. Basically, every component on your PC (motherboard, processor, video card, hard drive, etc) draws out power from the PSU (Power Supply Unit). So, the more components you have, the more electrical energy is consumed by your PC.

Most modern Motherboards today have built-in Video, Sound, and LAN. The Sound and LAN components of the motherboard are almost always sufficient enough for most users. For the Video Display though, most still prefer plugging in a separate Video card for the display. This is specially true for those who are into Gaming. But if you are not into PC Gaming, you might want to consider using the built-in Graphics Processor of the motherboard instead of using a separate video card. Typical Video Cards consume about 20 – 40 Watts. High End Video cards used for Gaming and Graphic Intensive Applications can consume as much as 80 Watts! A motherboard’s built-in graphic processor works by using a specified amount of the system’s memory, so you do need to have a large amount of Memory in your PC to use the built-in Video. But since most modern PC’s can accommodate larger amounts of RAM, memory cards are getting cheaper, and Built-in Graphics Processors are getting better, using the Built-in Video in you Motherboard not only saves you money on the account that you don’t have to buy a separate video card, and you shave off a couple of watts on the electrical consumption of your PC.

3. Use Enclosures or External Storage
Each Hard Drive you connect to the Motherboard uses around 25 – 30 Watts. Each Optical Drive you connect consumes Watts. A good way to save on electrical consumption in your PC is to use just 1 Hard drive and 1 Optical Drive. If you need an Additional Hard Drive or Optical Drive, you might want to use a Hard Disk/Optical Drive Enclosure that connects to your USB or FireWire port. Move you backups or rarely used files on the Enclosure, and just keep 1 Hard drive in the system. The reason for this is simple – your backup drive is consuming 25 Watts, even if you don’t use it. By removing the backup drive to the Enclosure you save 25 Watts. You can connect the Enclosure whenever you want to access your backup files.

If you are using multiple Hard Drives to store Media Files and you want the convenience of being able to play those files whenever you want to, consider upgrading to a larger capacity hard drive. This idea is also good for those who use Multi-Boot systems. Just Partition the Hard Drive to as be able to install multiple operating systems.

For Optical Drives, I recommend connecting just the DVD-RW to the system and placing your DVD-ROM/CD-RW/CD-ROM Drives in an enclosure.

4. Get a bigger stick
Most Memory or RAM modules consume 10 – 12 Watts. The newest DDR2 Type RAM modules are more Energy Efficient, consuming only 7.5 Watts, but some do need to work in pairs. So it is more Energy Efficient to buy bigger capacity memory sticks and use less memory slot in your motherboard. A 1GB DDR1 Memory would save you 30 Watts compared to using 4 256MB sticks.

5. Casing Fans and Lights
Some of today’s PC casings have colorful lights that automatically turn on when the PC is booted up. These lights may make your PC look fancy and they do tend to use only 3 watts of energy, but sometimes, they are just a waste of Electrical Energy. Like, if you use your PC during the day, or where there is bright light in the room that those CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light) lights are hardly noticeable, it is better to turn those lights off. It may just be 3 watts, but if you use your PC for long periods of time, those 3 watts pile up on your electricity meter. Some PC casings have switches for their CCFL lights, which is convenient so that you can turn the lights on when it is dark. Those that doesn’t have switches though, is connected directly to the Power supply, or in the Motherboard. It is better to unplug it and save 3 Watts.

Casing fans are often added to the casing to provide better airflow and cool the interior of the PC. Each of these fans consumes 2 Watts. If you’re room has good ventilation, or airconditioned, it’s better to just unplug those fans.

Tips on how to save on Electricity - Computers : Laptops

Laptops are almost energy efficient already. This is because they are built to run on a battery pack. But of course, CHEAPSKATES like me can squeeze out more energy savings from it.

1. Plug out the Cards
Most laptop owners use PCMCIA devices in their laptops. If you don’t actually use the device that often, you might consider plugging out the PCMCIA cards to reduce power consumption.

2. Disable unused Peripherals in the BIOS
Most older laptops, and some newer ones, have a built-in 56K-modem. If you use your laptop on the road, or if you’re connected to a broadband connection, you obviously don’t need this device. Your laptop’s Internal Floppy drive can also draw as much as 5 watts, even if you don’t use it.

3. Don’t opt for Wi-fi Ready
I am surprised to learn that a laptop’s built-in Wif-fi modem is a huge power hog. Disabled, it can consume 15 Watts, enabled, 16 Watts, and when it is in use, as much as 18 Watts. So it’s better to buy a laptop that doesn’t have a buil-in wi-fi and just buy an external one.

4. Switch off the built-in Speakers
Some laptops have a built-in speaker that has an on/off switch. You can save more power if you turn the speakers off and just use the external speaker connection to connect a headset or a USB powered mini-speaker set. The USB speaker set will consume 5 Watts, but you can easily plug it out if you’re not using the speakers.

5. Use your Laptop’s Built-in Battery Saving Features
Even if it is plugged in. Since Laptops are designed to be used “on the go”, manufacturers often include Power Saving features (aside from the standard Power saving features found on almost all PC’s) such as Processor Power Control, and LCD power adjustment. The processor power control (Like Intel’s Speedstep Technology) is a great feature to use. It “powers down” your processor so that it will use less energy. This is essentially useful if you’re doing tasks that don’t need too much processor power such as writing documents, viewing pictures, or watching a movie.

6. Consider Undervolting
Undervolting is like the reverse of overclocking. You lower the amount of voltage that is supplied to the Laptop’s Processor. For more information about Undervolting CLICK HERE.

For me however, it’s better to use the Power saving Features of your Laptop such as Intel’s Speedstep than undervolting. This is because undervolting, like overclocking, will void your warranty.

Tips on how to save Electricity – Computers : General

1. The Display is the best place to start.
Whether you are using an LCD Display, CRT, or the LCD on your Laptop, turning the display off will give you the most savings on your electric bill. Screensavers are just that, screensavers, they don’t provide any Powersaving feature. If you don’t want to constantly turn your display on or off, you can also use your monitor’s “Low Power Stand-by” feature, it will cut the monitor’s energy consumption by as much as 80%.

A great trick I learned is to reduce the Brightness on the display to about 50% and use my video card’s utility software to increase brightness. Reducing your monitor’s brightness also saves electrical consumption. Video Card vendors such as ATI and NVIDIA have utilities that can control the brightness of the display, without increasing the energy consumption of the video card. It doesn’t affect playing video’s though, but of course, you can use a movie player that has color/brightness/gamma control, such as VLC Media Player.

2. Use a Good Powerstrip Instead of an AVR.
Most Powerstrips have built-in line filters and surge suppressors (Such as Panther and Surer Brands in the Philippines), that it is safe to use even Generic PSU’s without AVR’s. AVR’s consume additional energy, and the energy it consumes gets higher as it heats up and used for a long period of time.

3. Shut it
Off. If you’re not going to use your PC for a long time, Shut it down and turn it off. If you hate waiting for long boot times, then use the Suspend/Hibernate Feature. You can also use the Power Schemes found on most operating systems like Windows and Linux.

4. Consider a 2nd PC
If you’re a Gamer or you really need a High-End Performance PC, then consider buying a 2nd, low end, low energy consumption PC for more “normal” tasks such as surfing the net or Office work, preferably a laptop. You can turn off your high-end PC after playing, then switch to the low power PC for tasks that don’t usually need high computing power

5. Buy a Laptop
If you don’t have the need for A High-End Performance or Gaming PC, then you should just use a Laptop. Even a 2nd hand one. This is specially true if you’re just using the PC for surfing the net and Office tasks. Most Pentium-3 based laptops are great, specially the 800Mhz and 1 Ghz speeds, because they offer more computing power per watts consumed.

A great way to save on Laptop purchase is to buy a 2nd hand one which have some defects that doesn’t necessarily affect performance and computing power. Cracks and dents on the casing significantly reduces a laptop’s price. If you don’t really care for aesthetics, you will definitely get a bargain on your purchase. You don’t even need a working battery pack, as long as you have the power adapter to plug in to the AC outlet, but of course you’ve got to forget mobile computing. A great bargain, but a rare find would be finding a high-end laptop, even with gaming power, that has a defective/non-working LCD display, battery, and keyboard but all connections, such as PCMCIA Slots, VGA out, USB, and PS/2 are still functioning properly. You can connect an LCD display, external keyboard, and the AC adapter to use it. Not only will you save money on buying it, but you’ll definitely going to save a lot on your electric bill.

7. PS/2 over USB
Using PS/2 mice and keyboards are better than using USB types. Each PS/2 connection uses only 2Watts, while USB devices draw out 5 Watts. If you’re using a USB connection for both your mouse and keyboard, that’s a difference of 6 watts if you’re using PS/2.

8. Unplug Any Unused USB/FireWire Devices
Unplug any USB and FireWire Devices that draws power from the USB/FireWire port from your PC when you are not using them. These devices include Bluetooth/IrDa USB devices, Webcams, Flash Drives, and Memory Card Readers. Each USB and FireWire device on your PC that is powered through the USB and FireWire ports consume 5 Watts and 8 Watts respectively. However, devices that are connected tthough the USB and FireWire ports that uses those ports solely for Data Transmission is safe to leave plugged in. These devices include Enclosures, Printers, and Scanners

9. Use your Operating System’s Power Schemes
Most popular operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, have Energy saving power schemes that enables your PC to automatically power down your System, Hard Drive, and Monitor whenever these components are not in use.

10. Save Power on Idle PC’s
CHECK OUT THIS SITE. This website discusses how you can save more energy when you’re PC is Idle.