1. Adjust the brightness on your monitor
The brighter the monitor, the more energy it uses. You can reduce your monitor’s brightness when it is in a dark room as our eyes will be more sensitive to light. A dimmer display will also help reduce eye strain.
2. Turn off your screensaver
Screensavers are not energy savers. In fact, certain graphics-intensive screensavers can cause the computer to burn twice as much energy and prevent a computer from entering sleep mode. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), turning off the screensaver can save you $30 - $95 a year on energy costs.
3. Use an LCD Monitor
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors use an average 50–70 per cent less energy in on-mode than conventional Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors. At eight working hours a day, the energy saved choosing an LCD over an equal sized CRT could typically be well over 100 kilowatts/year.
4. Switch to power-saving mode
Configure your monitor to enter a power-saving mode after 20 minutes of inactivity, and your hard drive to turn off after 30 minutes of inactivity. This can be done from the Power Options icon located in your Windows Control Panel. By changing these settings you can help reduce the power your computer draws when you are not using it.
Unplugging your devices can help reduce overall consumption of energy. (AP Photo)
5. Shut down
If you are going to be away from your computer for more than two hours, shut down your computer. On average, your computer can still be drawing about 100 watts. An alternative would be to place it in standby mode. Despite popular belief, shutting down and starting up your computer daily is a good habit for proper PC maintenance.
6. Unplug
On average, 40 per cent of electricity used to power home electronics is still consumed while the products are turned off! This is equivalent to 10 per cent of total home electricity consumption. By unplugging appliances, you can decrease your electricity bill and help the environment. A simple option is to connect multiple devices to a plug bank and then simply unplug that.
7. Switch off your chargers
Switch off your laptop, tablet or mobile phone chargers once it has finished charging. If you don't, it will continue to drain almost as much energy as when charging and generate 35-70 kg of avoidable carbon dioxide each year.
8. Clean up your PC’s operating system
This will reduce idle load because programs running in the background will use up more power. To check idle load, launch the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del.
Look out for the Energy Star label when buying electronics. (AP Photo)
9. Recycle old PCs and peripherals
By recycling, hazardous metals are extracted and plastic pieces are removed and reused to make new products. You can find out more about Lenovo’s recycling services by visiting this webpage for product recycling initiatives in your region.
10. Buy green
When purchasing a PC, look for the ENERGY STAR® rating to identify energy efficient equipment. ENERGY STAR® computers power down to a sleep mode that consume 15 watts or less power, which is around 70 per cent less electricity than a computer without power management features.
