With Earth Hour upon us this year many people may be giving some thought to energy consumption, consequential bills and the potential impact upon the planet (although people debate for and against the existence of global warming).
I am always looking for new ways to cut the use of energy and thought I’d share a few of them here.
- Allow your computers to go to sleep after a period of inactivity.
- Leaving computers and monitors switched on when you aren’t using for extended them can be wasteful.
- Remediate or replace older computers and/or components.
- More recent components are more capable when it comes to dialling back on power consumption than older components. For instance, Intel i7 CPUs can switch off some of its cores if they are not required unlike Pentium 4 CPUs that had no such feature and had an insatiable hunger for energy. CRT monitors are also energy guzzlers when compared to LED-backlit LCD screens.
- Replace incandescent lights with fluorescent lights.
- Incandescent bulbs transform a lot of energy in the form of heat instead of the primary purpose of providing light. Fluorescent bulbs are far more efficient and can save you a bit of cash especially with rising electricity costs.
- Turn off unused devices at the wall.
- Devices like washing machines, clothes dryers and printers still consume energy when not in active use. Consider turning them off at the wall when you have finished with them.
Whether or not you believe in global warming, the cost of energy is going to affect us all. Helping to minimise consumption will go some way to cushion the blow to some degree but I would be particularly interested in the uptake of renewable energy sources.
What energy saving measures do you implement in your life?
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