Think of All The Money You'll Save! Did you know that 90% of desktop computers are not optimized for energy efficiency?
It's simple to utilize the power management settings on your machine, and according to Intel, it can save you over 400-kilowatt hours annually. That's a savings of about $40 - $80 each year.
Within Windows head on down to the "start" menu, from there, you'll want to click on "settings" and then "control panel." It's now time to double click on "power management." Oh-la-la. Now, under where it says "power schemes," choose "always on" from the drop-down list. Below the "settings for always on power scheme" tab, look for two drop-down lists, labeled "turn off monitor" and "turn off hard disks," respectively. From each list select the amount of time you want your computer to wait before entering energy savings mode.
Here's another hot tip. Did you know that, in addition to looking groovy and taking up way less desk space, the new LCD monitors are good for about 100 KWH/year of electricity savings? OK, so that's not going to save the whales, but if you need a new monitor, it's a good excuse to upgrade.
Oh yeah: Some of you are on Macs. It's even easier (of course) to implement these settings. Just go to the Apple pull-down menu, select "system preferences" and then "energy saver." It's all in there. You're on a Mac; you can figure it out.
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