5 Ways To Make Your Computer Use Less Energy And Last Longer

One thing that you probably haven’t thought about is how much energy your blogging activities can use and how your computer may be in pain from those long nights of writing. Here are 5 ways you can help maintain your computer and make it use less energy:

1. Unplug Electronics When You Are Going Away For A While - If you are going away on vacation, unplug things like computers, TVs, air conditioners, etc. They still draw quite a bit of power even when turned off. If you use a surge protector this is easy, just turn it off or unplug it. This also keeps your electronics from getting fried if your house gets struck by lightning while you are away.

2. Optimize Your Computer’s Energy Settings - Most OSes these days let you set when to shut off your monitor, when to goto sleep, hibernation, etc. If you often walk out of your office for more than a few minutes, simply set your monitor to shut off after 5 or so minutes. Do not, however, set your computer or hard drive to sleep too quickly. Making a hard drive turn on and off all the time causes it die much quicker than it should, so I’d recommend setting your hard drive to shut off/put your computer to sleep after 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Don’t Have Peripherals Turned On Unless You Need Them - There is usually very little reason to leave external drives, speakers, and other peripherals on all the time (and if you go long periods of time without them, unplug them as well). A few watts here and there saves quite a bit of energy.

4. Clean Out Your Computer - You don’t have to be an electronics expert to clean out your computer. Simply undo some screws, pop it open, and check for dust buildup on any fans, and the heatsink on your processor. This will help prolong the life of your computer and it will reduce heat buildup. Just don’t use water, if you must use a liquid use Rubbing Alcohol.

5. Ditch That CRT! - Unless you really can’t afford a flat screen monitor, there is no reason to use a CRT monitor anymore. They heat up more, use more electricity, cause eye strain (I can’t even use the things without getting a horrible migraine), and they are bulkier than flat screen monitors. You don’t have to get super expensive high end monitors either, most consumers will not notice a big difference between high end monitors and the cheaper ones. Many times the panels are made by the same manufacturer (a bit like drug companies, many of them make the brand-name and generic drugs using the same materials and same machinery in the same factory).

Please subscribe, or else I will cry. Do you really want to make a programmer cry?