Today, the 15th October, is Blog Action Day (which has the nifty acronym of B.A.D. LOVE IT!)
Blog Action Day is a day set aside by bloggers around the world to discuss something that effects all of us - this year the subject is climate change.
I actually find it quite ironic that this years topic will generate millions of people to power on their computers and laptops and consume energy for a topic they are trying to promote using less energy on!
I think it would have been more appropriate to ask bloggers NOT to blog on this day! But who am I?
Bearing this in my mind I thought it would be a good idea to share a few tips on how to use less energy with our computers
Top 10 ways to reduce computing energy use
1.Use computer and monitor power management. Doing so can save nearly half a ton of CO2 and more than $60 a year in energy costs.
2.Don’t use a screen saver. Screen savers are not necessary on modern monitors and studies show they actually consume more energy than allowing the monitor to dim when it’s not in use.
3.Turn down the brightness setting on your monitor. The brightest setting on a monitor consumes twice the power compared to the dimmest setting.
4.Turn off peripherals such as printers, scanners and speakers when not in use.
5.Fight phantom power; plug all your electronics into one extension lead and turn the whole thing off when you are finished using your computer. If posible, unplug the extension lead from the wall to avoid high voltage surges which may occur during an electrical storm.
6.Use a laptop instead of a desktop if this is feasible. Laptops typically consume less power than desktops.
7.Close unused applications and turn off your monitor when you’re not using it.
Of course vegans are already making a HUGE positive impact on climate change by choosing a vegan diet and this is why I wanted to participate in this years B.A.D.
A lot of people overlook what to me is the most obvious way to help preserve our planet.
So if you're reading this and you've never considered your diet contributing to the devastating effect on climate change then I hope this has given you some food for thought (do you like what I did there!)
GO VEGAN!
13 comments:
Thanks for posting this, I've been wondering how to reduce my computers energy use - after reading your post I turned off my screen saver! :)
these are all awesome tips, Jeni! i'm totally going to start putting them all in to place - thank you oh-so much!
that's one of the reasons i went vegan - for the earth. not only did i want to take a stand against animal cruelty, but i wanted to reduce my impact on our world, too. huzzah for veganism! :)
Thanks for the tips... admittedly, I never think to turn my printer off when I'm not printing... I'll be doing that from now on though! :)
Thanks for the tips! I need to keep pointers like that in mind more often.
Great post!
Good tips! I need to go do these right now!
Good tips!
Excellent tips. I had no idea the brightness setting on the monitor had such an impact on power usage.
Thank you so much for the Birthday and Anniversay comment!
Thanks for the information (and to help me in my quest to use less power). I am an "unplugger" married to a "seriously?how-much-could-it-possibly-use?" person... and the debate rages on! I'm sure this will help a lot! I don't have a laptop, but that does make sense. Of course you are absolutely right about the vegan diet being best for the planet. Is anyone listening????
Oh, and that trip to York sounds delicious. Isn't it fun to go to new stores wherever you find yourself? Have fun with your mom!
Thank you for this great post!
Will print this out and check what we may have forgotten to change! (hubby is very aware of these things, the good man :) )
I meant to go back to see your B.A.D. post, and then I forgot! So glad to see your post, and some great tips in there!
A couple months ago (middle of the hottest days of the summer of course!) the air conditioning at work broke. It was 85 inside and that was at 7am!
Eventually they told us all to go home, but in the meantime I remember turning the brightness on my monitor down much lower. It made me really conscious of how much heat (and thus energy) was being put out by the computer screen! You can put your hand in front of the screen and feel the difference, it is amazing. (Especially amazing because we don't tend to think to do such simple things!)
Great post!
Good tips!
I try to always unplug peripherals like printer when not in use, sometimes others forget, so thanks for making me check - yup!
Haven't heard about brightness and screensavers before - is this for LCD monitors or CRT too?
(Plus, less brightness is better for the eyes!!)
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