Conserving Energy: PC Power Consumption (Easy savings!)

Conserving Energy

This blog shares the experiences I've had implementing various solutions to saving energy, primarily in my home. Over the past few years, I've cut my yearly electric usage by over 12,000 kwh per year, natural gas by 133 ccf per year, and am saving over $700 per year even though energy prices have increased more than 250% over the same period. Many of these solutions cost less than a couple hundred dollars, some less than $10, so they're definitely worth the effort.
My home is a 2500 square foot house built in the 1970's. We live in Louisiana, so our home needs a lot more protection from the heat than the cold. However, we do have cold snaps that bring us below the freezing mark periodically, so heating is still a concern.

As with any solutions, your mileage may vary.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

PC Power Consumption (Easy savings!)

I showed in a previous post how to cut the power usage on your PC by enabling software power saving options. However, I've found that the possibilities for savings are rather large. My 3 Gigahertz Pentium PC uses between 124 watts and 206 watts. When in standby mode, that drops to 2 watts. (Hard Drive off mode doesn't appear to affect power consumption much). Also, my 19" CRT uses about 68 watts when on and 1 watt in standby mode. Obviously, it's better to shut the machine down, however, simply by engaging the power saving functions in software, I'm not using up to 275 watts if I forget. That can really add up over the life of the PC.

Also, when it's time to upgrade, a 15" flat panel uses 17 watts when running and 1 watt in standby. This would also save some money considering the amount of time I sit in front of the computer.

Conserving Energy

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

PC Power Consumption (Easy savings!)

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