7 ways to reduce your PC's power consumption

by Brad Linder Oct 15th 2007

Sometimes it might seem hard to be a computer geek who cares about the environment. On the one hand, you understand the need to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. On the other hand you want power-hungry computers and gadgets running in every room in the house (you know, so you can shop or watch YouTube while you're in the shower).

Since today is Blog Action Day, we're going to take a look at a few ways to make your PC a bit more energy efficient.

You don't need to leave your PC on all night to download a file, finish a task, or perform an automated backup. You can use the Schedule Tasks feature in Windows Vista or XP to wake your computer from sleep mode if you want to perform a regular task like a backup in the middle of the night.
If the only reason you leave your PC on at night because you need to finish downloading a file, check out the Auto Shutdown add-on for Firefox. It will automatically power your PC down after all files are finished downloading.
If you're not using Firefox but still want to schedule a shutdown, check out Shutdown After and Winoff. Whether you're downloading a BitTorrent file or rendering a video file, you probably know roughly how long it will take to finish that task. Just schedule your PC to shutdown, hibernate, or sleep shortly after the task should be finished.
Upgrade to Windows Vista. Yeah, we know, there are a lot of reasons not to "upgrade." But Windows Vista gives you far more control over your power settings than Windows XP. In fact, you may be able to save up to $75 a year on your electric bill simply by running Vista in "balanced mode," which means your CPU will be throttled down when you're performing less CPU-intensive tasks.
If you've already got Windows Vista, you can use Vista Battery Saver to save even more energy when your PC is unplugged. This tiny application lets you set profiles for when your PC is plugged in and when it's unplugged. But more importantly, it lets you turn off the Aero interface, the Sidebar, and automatically dim the backlight when your PC is unplugged. This makes your battery last a bit longer, which in turn means you spend less time charging your battery and sucking energy from the grid.
CO2Saver is an application that runs in the background of Windows XP and Vista machines and adjusts your power settings automatically. If you haven't used your PC for a while, CO2 Saver will jump in and lower your performance settings.
You can also save some energy simply by turning off your screen saver. Once upon a time screen savers helped protect monitors from damage. Now they just suck electricity. Setting your screen saver to "blank" will cause a blank screen to pop up when you haven't touched your keyboard or mouse for a while.

Of course, if you just can't find a way to cut back on your PC's energy use, there are other ways to help the environment. For example, you could consider buying your electricity from an alternative energy program. Odds are you'll find information on your local power company's website. For example, ConEdison maintains the energy choice website Power Your Way.

Tags: blog action day, blog-action-day, BlogActionDay

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mxxcon said 3:27PM on 10-15-2007

in addition to using 'blank' screensaver, people should configure their monitor to go into standby mode at the same time.

Shibathedog said 3:51PM on 10-15-2007

yeah thats what I do, my monitor turns off after 20 mins of inactivity. Screensavers tend to pop up at really inconvenient times so I stopped using them.

MrKniceGuy said 5:01PM on 10-15-2007

Forget carbon blah, blah, blah... I care about saving $$$!!!

Fred Thompson said 6:16PM on 10-15-2007

Motherboard manufacturers have utilities to reduce power consumption and heat. Those are far better options than CO2Saver. It would be really nice to have a freeware driver for Windows that would power down individual hard drives instead of the current single setting. C: is going to be used periodically for housekeeping tasks like checking mail, virus scanner updates, etc. Other drives aren't used as consistently.

Fred Thompson said 6:16PM on 10-15-2007

Uhh...CO2Saver doesn't explain what benefit it gives over the Power Options and the Display Options (screen blanking.) The CPU cooling provided by programs like CPUIdle is now provided by Windows. You can set screen and hard drive "power down" delays during inactive times. CO2Saver looks to me like nothing more than crapware to put yet another ad revenue search bar on the screen and take up real estate while providing a false "warm fuzzy" about "reducing CO2 emissions". (Forget for the moment there is no way CO2Saver can possibly know how much CO2 is created to generate the electricity you are using - that would require in-depth tracking of where and how the electricity is being generated.)

If there was a way to put power management like that of the tablet XP and Vista builds into regular desktop Windows, that wouldbe great. CO2Saver looks like a fraud.

Motherboard manufacturers have utilities to reduce opwer and associated heat when the system is idle. Use those.

If someone knows of a good freeware driver to enhance Windows' power handling so drives are individually idled, that would be great. C: is used far more often for periodic system tasks than other drives.

Fred Thompson said 8:03AM on 10-16-2007

naser said 8:37AM on 10-18-2007

Well..thats totally worthless in a situation like the one I'm in right now :) Infact, about 80% of the total internet users in the world "don't" have the high-speed broadband lines that the folks at the developed countries enjoy . A 400 mb file takes 72 hrs of non-stop downloading in my connection :( Not to mention, there are power cuts so frequent that one might say "When did the power come back?". But hey, we still get huge loads of electric bills at the end of the month, thanks to our corrupt power-industry (who takes bills from rich industrialists and shoves it up our...ummm, ok).

So, no help for me there, I can probably buy a pirated copy of Vista for less than 18 cents from one of our many local software shops, but who cares.

Kermit Johnson said 1:41PM on 10-25-2007

Thank you for your tips on reducing pc power consumption.

Thank you for your participation in Blog Action Day.

Kudos to you for participating in blog action day.

I did not participate. However, I wrote a belated post of my own about an environmental issue that might strike a cord with some of your readers.

Brazilian Teak Floors, Slave Labor, and the Destruction of the Rain Forest.

You can find it at:
http://www.realestatetwincities.net/blog/

Anything that you can do to help promote awareness of this issue will be greatly appreciated. Normally, I don't ask for this kind of help, but the issue is that important to me.

Thank you!

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