Sears Blue Climate Crew

Saving Energy with Your PC

You've heard the debate about whether leaving your PC on when you're not using it uses less energy than shutting it down and starting it up again later. Now that small choices about household energy use show up on your utility bill, here are some guidelines to help you make that decision. The Truth about Powering Up

It's true: there's a small power surge when a computer starts up. But it's less energy than a computer uses when it's on for a long period. So here's the general recommendation:

• Turn off the monitor if you won't use your PC for more than 20 minutes.


• Shut down both the CPU and monitor if won't use your PC for more than two hours.

That recommendation doesn't take into account the value of your time, however. If your computer takes a long time to shut down and restart, the value of the time you spend waiting might cancel out the savings of turning off the computer.

"Off" Isn't Really Off

Your plugged-in computer components continue to draw power even after you shut down the machine. To stop that silent power drain, plug the components into a surge protector (which you should do anyway to protect the equipment). When you're not using your PC for an extended period – such as overnight – turn off the switch on the surge protector. If you don't use a surge protector, unplug equipment when it's not in use.

Making Use of Sleep Mode Features

Unless you bought your PC during the last millennium, you can specify how long the monitor and CPU stay one after you've stopped touching the keyboard. On a Windows system, you can find the settings under Power Options on the Control Panel.

The savings of using these settings is considerable. The sleep mode on ENERGY STAR® computers consumes 15 Watts or less, which is around 70 percent less electricity than a computer without this feature. ENERGY STAR monitors can power down into two successive sleep modes. In the first, the monitor energy consumption is less than or equal to 15 Watts, and in the second, power consumption reduces to 8 Watts, which is less than 10 percent of its operating power consumption.

Two Myths Debunked

Myth: Turning the computer on or off shortens its life.

While it's true that turning any electrical device on or off causes a little wear and tear, the effect is negligible on computers because most people upgrade to newer technology long before their PC reaches the end of its.

Screen savers are not energy savers. In fact, a screen saver can use more energy than not using one and can prevent the sleep mode from working. Not only don't they save energy, they don't save the screen: they used to prevent image ghosts from burning into the monitor, but modern LCD color monitors don't need screen savers.