green is universal

By Thilak Raj Rao, TechBuzz

Leaving our computers on overnight uses energy. We all know this. Some of us shut our computers down or put them to sleep, but a lot of us just leave them on... all the time.

If you need a little convincing or motivation on why you should turn off your computer at night, then check out LocalCooling.com. It's a free application (Windows XP only) that will automatically optimize your PC's power consumption. It will also show you real-time savings in environmental terms such as how many trees and gallons of oil you've saved.

Local Cooling roughly calculates your PC's power consumption based on your hardware configuration such as monitor size and CPU's power consumption. You can also share your savings stats with the world. Local Cooling's homepage lists top-saving companies, teams and individuals based on any stats that have been shared with them.

At the time I wrote this post, the Local Cooling community had saved 1,753,470.0 KWh which is approximately equal to 841,665.6 gallons of oil and 92,933.91 trees.

While we're on the subject, here are a few more power saving tips for your computer:

Set your computer's power saving scheme so your monitor turns off after a short period of inactivity. Running a screen saver won't do any good. As long as your monitor is on, it's still consuming power.

Try to buy TFT flat screen monitors, not CRT. TFTs generally consume less power.

You can save your notebook's battery by lowering your screen's brightness. If you use Vista, then check out this application.

If you want to keep your applications open, and save power at the same time, then use hibernation instead of sleep mode. Hibernation will save all your open application data. You can learn more about hibernation mode here.

Be efficient and smart with your PCs power consumption. Save power and our planet.

Thilak Raj Rao
http://tech-buzz.net