screensavers are bad, uh-kay?

From the EcoStreet blog, some good methods for cutting down on your PC’s electricity use, which can quickly add up to noticeable savings, especially for businesses where people leave their computers when they’re not working at night. It’s helpful that the article gives simple how-tos, explains what different settings do, and stresses tailoring settings to individual use to avoid becoming a burden. A couple of the tips are excerpted below:

“Turn off monitor” - my suggestion: 5 minutes. This puts your monitor into standby, which uses less power than being fully on, but it still uses a lot, so remember to turn it off when not in use. Your monitor accounts for about 1/3 of the electricity your PC uses.

Hibernation is a special form of power saving. …Everything in memory gets saved, then the PC turns off. When you turn the PC back on, it reverts to the state it was in right before it went into hibernation - your Excel spreadsheet will be open, your song will continue playing from the part it stopped at, etc. This is great if you spend a lot of time working on a document, or usually have several programmes running, as you can turn the PC off completely, and have it open up exactly how it was.

Please remember, though, that screensavers are a waste of money and energy. If you have time to allow a screensaver to appear on your screen, then you have time to turn that screen off.