Energy Conservation Tips - GO GREEN!

With the focus on being environmentally friendly these days (which I think is great btw) I have created some tips on how you can be environmentally conscious with your computers, electronics, and appliances at home. We pay some of the highest electricity rates in the USA here in Hawaii so it makes good sense to see where you can conserve your pocketbook a little as well. I hope this information proves beneficial to you, drop us an email if you have suggestions for the column.

Computers

Desktop systems are inherently less energy efficient than laptops because their focus is on reliability, speed, and performance versus the focus of a laptop which is power management and portability. Typical desktop systems with monitors on the average consume between 100 and 400 watts. There are exceptions, for example if you have a very large monitor you power footprint will be larger.  Laptops on the other hand consume between 40 and 120 watts (high side when charging) and of course have the monitor built in. So one way of becoming more energy efficient is by using laptops instead of desktop systems. Laptops offer other advantages in green energy in that they can be charged via the use of solar panels, something that desktop systems cannot do.

Here are some easy things you can do to conserve energy on both laptop and desktop systems.

1. Set your Windows power management settings in Control Panel/Power Options to an aggressive plan. For instance set your monitor to turn off at 5 minutes, your hard disks to turn off after 10 minutes, System Standby to 30 minutes and System Hibernates at 60 minutes. This will turn off your PC if it is inadvertently unattended for a length of time.

2. When you are going to be leaving the computer for any length of time idle, turn it off instead of just letting it run. Modern computers do not last longer if you let them run continuously, in fact it may actually decrease the life of the computer.  In addition why pay for power that is being consumed if the computer is going to be sitting idle. There is yet another reason to turn your PC off when you will not be using it for an extended period of time, it minimizes the risk of hackers, or malicious people that have physical access to your computer from causing harm that could have been avoided.

3. Finally if you have an older PC you should consider upgrading the power supply. Newer PC power supplies are much more efficient. Also if you still have an older CRT consider recycling it and getting a LCD monitor as they are more energy efficient for the most part.

Another environmentally important thing you can do that will make a big difference is taking your old PC equipment that you are retiring to a computer recycling center. In Kona you can take your equipment to the Kaloko industrial area and drop it off at Kona Compucycle right below Costco. Computers and most electronics are accepted. Its free if its your personal stuff, business pay a small fee.  Click the link above to get their phone number.

Electronics in your Home

One of the biggest things you can do to conserve energy in your home is to turn off devices (or put them on power strips that can be turned off) with phantom loads. Phantom loads are devices that are running in standby or leaking electricity.  Devices with phantom loads typically are Power supplies, transformers and inefficient electronic devices, for example battery chargers. Those constantly generate heat that can't be further used. "Instant on" functions, like remote control receivers, waiting for the user to interact also consume power. While this consumption of power may be used to provide useful functions for appliances such as remote controls and digital clocks to the user, most power consumed by non-operational devices is considered wasted. In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. The problem is that you cannot tell how much power these devices consume without using a power consumption gauge like the P3 International "Kill a watt".  When testing my home with the "Kill a watt" I was very surprised to find that my older Pioneer stereo system used over 20 watts sitting there in standby doing nothing. When I calculated the cost to me in electricity, it was over $55 a year for a device that rarely gets used in our home anymore. Needless to say that device now stays unplugged until we need it.

If you would like to have us analyze your home with a "Kill a watt" to see where your energy guzzlers are, let us know by sending email at the link below. We provide this as a free service to our customers.

Appliances in your Home

If you have older appliances in your home you should consider replacing them with newer Energy Star rated appliances. Appliances become less efficient with age. Energy Star appliances consume on the average 10-50% less energy than older appliances. See http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=appliances.pr_appliances for more information.

Also it makes good sense to get rid of your old power sucking incandescent or halogen bulbs and replace them with Compact Fluorescent (CFL) or even better with the newer very efficient LED light bulbs.

Alternative Energy

We are experimenting with Alternative energy source at PCC (Wind and Solar). We will provide some of our results in the near future in this article.
One conclusion that we have come to already is that it is much more cost effective and easier to try to find ways to conserve energy versus trying to convert your life over completely to an off-grid alternative energy system. More information coming in the future.

Links for more information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/pdfs/energy_savers.pdf
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/