Green IT for Dummies®

Chapter 15. Reducing Desktop Energy Waste

In This Chapter

• Reducing your current consumption

• Lowering costs by putting machines to sleep

• Determining the energy consumed in physical desktop computing

• Reducing consumption with desktop virtualization

• Using a flash drive

In Chapter 14, we talk about buying greener equipment for the desktop. But we know your budget only lets you replace equipment every few years at best, and some may still have Windows 95 machines plugging away. Even so, you can introduce certain practices that help you reduce the energy use of the equipment you already have.

In this chapter, we tell you about simple energy-saving habits, such as setting computers to hibernate when not in use or turning off monitors at night. And you also find out about some of the technologies that are currently used to provide end users with their desktops. Finally, we look at some new technologies that may eventually replace the traditional PC.

Reducing Current Consumption (Pun Intended)

Saving on your electrical power consumption is an easy, effective way to reduce energy waste coming from your desktop computing equipment. Perhaps the simplest step toward your energy-saving goal is setting the computers and their monitors to go to sleep or hibernate after they've been idle for several minutes. According to Microsoft, activating your equipment's sleep settings prevents about 300 pounds of CO₂ emissions each year per computer.

Here are a number of other simple steps that reduce desktop computer ...