Greener computing, greener planet

Generally, now that the economy is down the pan the growing consensus is that environmental issues are less of a priority until that situation can be improved. Still, there are a number of small things that individual consumer can do right now to start making a difference – one Watt at a time:

Change powersaving settings to turn your screen off sooner and give your computer a chance to sleep

• If you are not using it then switch it off and or suspend/hibernate it.
• If it is off then unplug it as it will still draw power otherwise.
• Change your operating system’s power saving settings, most computers are tuned for performance out of the box with no regard for power.
• If you are thinking of getting a new computer just because your old one is getting slow or the software on it is broken then think whether it is the computer that is the real problem.
• If you do want a new computer, get something more energy efficient – my eeepc is currently drawing only 12w in active use.

I’m sure that I will not have been able to cover everything in this short post so if you have any tips of your own please comment.

Finally here is a short video from Google and the power down the planet campaign about how you can simply cut down your power usage (sorry if you are unable to view this at school due to the county’s Internet access policies ):