Talking About Green

How much energy does your computer use? Would you believe that you could be wasting as much as 250 watts just from your PC tower? A laptop uses as much as 50 watts and an old fashion CRT monitor can use as much as the entire computer, doubling your usage. I was alarmed to find this out myself… I have always tried to be energy efficient for both monetary and environmental reasons.

I turned off lights, used fans instead of the air conditioner in the summer, and used hot water bottles and battery powered electric mattress pads in the winter. Imagine my surprise when I found out how much energy I was wasting, despite all of these efforts, just because I kept my computer plugged in when I went to bed at night!

Chances are, you are having the same issues that I was. However well intentioned you may be, keeping your computer, laptop cord, television or other major appliances turned on at night can put out a low hum of energy that really adds up through the night. Let me put it this way: the average desktop computer, when turned off, can still generate up to 2.88 watts a day, or more that $125 worth per year.

When you have your computer on during the day but just idling, as I am sure many of us do both at home and at the office, that amount if further stacking against us. Putting the computer, laptop of monitor on sleep, or turning it off between use, can save you more than $100 a year, and do a lot of good for conserving energy.

Your best bet is to unplug your computer completely during the night or when not in use. It may seem like a lot of work, but it is the best way to ensure you are not using up any energy at all when it isn’t on.  What I always recommend to make this easier is to get a power strip and have everything for the computer, including routers, printers and monitor, in that one surge protector. From there you can just unplug that at night, making it a quick action that takes a few seconds, and still saves you a lot of cash.

You may be wondering how this affects other appliances around your home. If a computer uses up so much, how much does the rest use? The standby power of some TV’s can be quite high, especially older models. If you have a television that was made before the year 2003, for example, it can use between 5 and 21 watts. Yikes! This is another appliance you will want to unplug, along with cabletop boxes, DVD players and consoles. Again, a power strip can be a great central point to turn this all off fast.

It doesn’t take much to eliminate the energy use of certain items in your house. Not only will doing so help the environment by reducing pollution and resources, but you will be helping your wallet, as well.

This guest post is by Annie Wallace for CheapStingyBargains.com, the leading provider of Dell Coupons.