On or off? The power is yours

Computer gurus can’t decide whether on or off is better. Older computers sustained damage to their components from frequent shut-downs and start-ups. This fact combined with long boot-up times for many machines resulted in users leaving them running around the clock. Now, many experts contend that today’s computers suffer no ill effects from being turned on and off. They further suggest that the heat and stress of leaving computers running can harm them and waste energy–which adds to your electric bill.

If you leave your computer running all day but want to trim your electric bill, consider shutting off the monitor when you’re not using the machine. Standard CRT monitors account for about two thirds of the power consumed by desktop computers, and take only a few seconds to turn back on. (Screen-savers do not conserve power.) By turning off the monitor whenever you’re away from the computer and shutting the entire machine down at night, you can capture almost 80% of a computer’s potential energy savings. You’ll also reduce cooling costs because the monitors and computers won’t generate as much heat.

That other 20% of potential energy savings lies with the power-management settings contained in your Windows or Macintosh operating system. These allow you to tell the machine what components to shut down when it’s not in use and allow the computer to "wake up" faster than if you shut it down.

To access these features for a computer running Windows, click on the Start button, then select Settings, Control Panel, and Power Options. You’ll see various, self-explanatory options for monitor and system power schemes, depending on which version of Windows you’re running. Activating these features will allow the PC to save power while idle.

You may have system "standby" and system "hibernate" options. Standby puts the monitor and hard drive in a low-power state that allows for almost immediate recovery, but doesn’t protect any unsaved information. Hibernate saves everything on your disk, turns off the monitor, and stops the hard drive–but takes longer to recover.

Macintosh users running OS 7.5 also can benefit from similar power-saving features. Pull down the apple menu, then select Control Panels and Energy Saver. The machine gives you options for automatically shutting down or activating "sleep" mode for the monitor and system. More-recent Macintosh operating systems offer additional energy-saving options, such as scheduling automatic shutdowns.

New computer hardware can also result in energy savings and lower electric bills. A flat-panel screen uses about 20% as much energy as a standard CRT monitor. Or buy a laptop computer and increase your mobility while using only 25% of the total energy–system plus monitor–consumed by a desktop model.

Illustration © Digital Vision.

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