Eco Friendly Ways to Use Your Computer

Eco Friendly Ways to Use Your Computer

With billions of kilos of computer waste being generated every year, it is a good idea to ensure your computer usage, at least, is eco friendly. If you use your computer a lot, you might be into web design or digital marketing, but even if you just use it at home and not for a business, the computer has a high energy consumption rate. Using it in eco-friendly ways is good for the earth’s resources and suitable for your budget.

Here are some tips on how to save power with your computer.

• Make sure your monitor’s sleep feature is set to power down automatically when you are away from it for a while. Look for ‘Power Options’ in your control panel. While sleep mode still uses some energy, it can also save much.
• Ensure you turn your monitor off each night and when you will be away all day or for a few hours. This will save a great deal on power usage.
• Lower the display brightness. The brighter your monitor is, the more power is being used. Another advantage is that a dimmer light reduces eye strain.
• If you have an animated screen saver, turn it off. These were to protect the old monitors. Newer LCD or LED monitors don’t need this type of protection, and animated screensavers take up a lot of power, even if they are fun to watch.

• Enable ‘standby’ or ‘hibernate’ mode to save time for your computer to boot up. Standby does use some energy, but it is very convenient if you need quick access to your computer. Hibernate uses no power, but it is not as convenient if you need a quick boot-up time. Choose the one that most suits your computer usage.
  
• Keep your PC tuned up. Like a car, a computer needs to be kept in good order, or it uses more power, gets hotter and runs more slowly. Part of this is to defrag the memory every month or so.
• Recycle your old PC when you need a new one, rather than sending it to a landfill. Many organisations would benefit from having your computer. Just be sure all your personal information is deleted by using data-wiping software. Deleting it doesn’t truly get it off.
• When you purchase a new computer, buy ‘green’. Most laptops now have energy-saving features, and they can be set up like a desktop model by using a full-sized monitor, keyboard and wireless mouse. Many laptops use 50% less power than desktop computers. You can also get those that use recyclable material and have re-usable or rechargeable parts