Is your computer a Yorkshire Terrier or a St. Bernard? Yorkshire Terriers are ready to go at 90 miles/hour all day long. Adult St. Bernards sleep 16 to 18 hours a day. You want a computer with internal settings like a St. Bernard. When you’re not ready to play with your computer or take it for a walk, your computer should quickly fall into sleep mode.
The problem is, most people have their computers set like Yorkshire Terriers – ready to go all the time, up all night, using energy. Here’s a video about why this doesn’t make sense.
Computers use between 30 and 300 watts of power depending on the model and internal settings. Desktop computers use more energy than laptops. Big box Cathode Ray Tube monitors use more energy than flat screens. Regardless of which type you have, your computer’s power management settings are easy to adjust. With a few mouse clicks, you can set your computer to go to “sleep” so it is only using a few watts. Don’t worry, your computer will wake up seconds after you touch the mouse or keyboard.
Letting your monitor sleep does not cause conflicts with software or network operations, it will save $40-60/year in energy costs, and will reduce your carbon footprint by about half a ton of CO2 per year.
If you are unlucky enough to have Windows Vista like me, here’s the process for changing your power management settings:
- From the “Start” menu in the lower left corner of your computer, click on “Control Panel,” then
- “Performance Information and Tools,” then
- “Adjust Power Settings, “ then
- “Choose when to turn off the display.”
- From here you will be able to choose how soon to “Turn off the display” and “Put the computer to sleep.”
For every other PC I've had, adjusting the power management settings has been easy to find through the "Control Panel" in the "Start" menu. Are there any Mac users who want to share how to change the power management settings for their computers?
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