Energy Project #1: Optimize the Power Usage of my Computers

Current Power consumed:	170 kwh/month	% of total power usage:	36%
Forecasted power conserved:	114 kwh/month	Forecasted % reduction in power usage:	24%
Cost:	$0	Payback Time:	0
Forecasted Money Saved:	$9.09/month	Time to Implement:	10 minutes

As I mentioned in my energy audit, one of the biggest draws of power from my home are my computers and peripherals, compounding for a whopping 36% of my monthly energy consumption.

I work in the technology industry, so I'm constantly using the computers, and like to leave them on for easy access. Why? Simply because it takes forever to turn off and turn back on again. It's a huge hassle and inconvenience.

What I've learned is: I've been stupid. And my previous attitude is stupid. These days, computers have lots of helpful tools that will allow me to conserve power and save money in just a few clicks, without having to deal with any of the hassle of my computer off and on. Everybody wins!

Before I walk you through how to optimize your computers, let's educate ourselves on some important computer concepts.

Computers 101:

Memory: Memory is a temporary storage solution that's really fast to read from and to write to. Your computer uses memory to store things like the applications you are running, and the word document you are currently typing on. Memory helps your computer show quick changes on the screen, and let you switch quickly between applications.

But memory is impermanent on your machine. If your machine loses power, anything that's in memory can go away too. That's why when you were working on your term paper in college, and the power outage happened, and you forgot to save it, you lost it forever. When you save something, it gets written to the hard disk, which is a much more permanent storage solution.

Hard Drive (Disk): When you want something to stick around, you put it in your hard disk. Disks can fail and need to be backed-up, but it's a much more infrequent event than losing your memory. Disks are big and great to store things on, but also a bit slow, so your computer tries not to deal with it too much except when you really need to (like when you're saving a document). 

Why is this important? It's important because understanding it will help you figure out which is the best low-power option for your machine. Some use memory to remember what you were doing, and some use the hard drive.

Other things in your computer that draw power:

If you're new to computers, there are a couple of things you should understand: the first is your monitor. You can turn your monitor off without impacting your computer. It draws from a separate power source. There is very little downside to turning your monitor off as frequently as you can.

There are lots of other components that draw power in your computer. Fans turn on to cool it off, devices that are plugged in through USB ports (like an iPod) want to power up. When your computer is not being used, we want to be certain that all of these things are turned off as well.

1.  Manipulating Power Settings on a Windows XP desktop

The computer I use the least frequently is an XP machine. XP has two primary power saving modes to choose from. They are called "Hibernation" and "Standby". If you're like me and hate how long it takes to turn your computer on and off all of the time, you should get familiar with these modes. They take much less time to use than powering up and down your machine, and are extremely convenient.  Here's an overview:

 

In this instance, the clear best option is hibernation. I work on that computer in long fits and starts, and when I'm done, I won't be back for a while. Response time when I turn it back on is not critical. So I configure my power options to hibernate the entire machine after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Also, I don't need my monitor on for that full 20 minutes of inactivity. I can set the monitor to turn off after five minutes. Long enough so it doesn't turn off in the middle of watching a YouTube video, but short enough that it saves power on top of the hibernation.

To set this up, I need to go into my start menu. I click on "Control Panel", and then click on something called "Power Options". This brings up a window that allows me to change these options.

Ignore the power schemes at the top. They are pretty much useless. Instead, do the following:

• >- Change the "Turn off monitor" to say "After 5 Minutes".
• - Ignore the hard disks and standby options
• - Change the "System Hibernates" option from 'Never' to 'after 20 minutes'.
• - Click "OK".

Next time I want to bring my machine back, it'll take about 15 seconds, and I'll have to reach down and press the power button. But it seems worth it to reduce my power bill by that much.

2. Manipulating Power Settings for a Windows Vista Desktop

My primary desktop computer is a Vista machine. My laptop also runs Vista. Vista has two primary power saving modes that are totally different from XP and differently optimized for laptops and desktops. They are called "Hybrid Sleep" and "Sleep". Generally, Hybrid Sleep is "on" on your desktop and "off" for your laptop.  Overview:

Hibernation still exists in Vista, but is more difficult to set up. If you'd like to look into it for your machine, I suggest you look to this helpful article.

This particular desktop is used a lot more frequently in multiple usage sessions a day, so I decided to let this machine sleep instead of hibernate.

I decided that I wanted my desktop monitor to turn off after 2 minutes of inactivity, and my desktop computer to enter hybrid sleep mode after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Going to the start menu again, again under the control panel, again under "Classic Mode", again under "Power Options". Here the main thing to do is to choose a "Power Plan". There I found three choices: balanced, power saver, and high performance.

Unfortunately, none of these are quite right for what I want, so the only thing to do is to create my own. To do this, select the "Create a power plan" option in the left hand side of the window.

Once here, it is pretty straightforward to select the timing that I want for my monitor and my machine.

3. Manipulating Power Settings for a Windows Vista Laptop

The power settings for a laptop are more complex because it can draw from a battery or from a power socket. When you go to the Power Options screen, you get to consider both of these.

I'm still interested in getting my laptop to hibernate after a long period of time. The battery will still recharge while it is off.

So I'm going to set my laptop when plugged in as to have the same settings as my desktop (monitor off after 2 minutes, sleep after 20).

When it's not plugged in, I need to be a little more aggressive about the power savings to preserve battery, so I set these settings to 2 and 5 minutes respectively. 

Other Tips and Tricks:

• If your computer doesn't seem to be falling asleep, try making sure you have a mouse pad under your mouse. Our glossy desk kept triggering the optical mouse because of the reflective surface. This was solved by a piece of paper or mouse pad easily.
• Vista seems to have a widely documented problem with waking up from sleep. For me, sometimes clicking on my mouse would wake my machine, but not my monitor. This doesn't require a full reboot to fix – just turn the monitor off and on and the your picture should be back.
• A fun way to quantify the impact of this change is to download the Snap CO2 Saver (http://co2saver.snap.com) for Vista or XP. It makes it easy to customize your settings, and while your computer is asleep, it will tell you how much carbon dioxide you have prevented the release of. In the two days since I've downloaded it, it tells me that sleeping just one of my machines has saved 5.20 lbs of CO2. Cool!

I can't wait to get my power bill next month.