Download this Widget and Power Down

Posted on November 2, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized |

By Lauren Ellis

If you’re reading this post right now, it’s safe to assume that you own a computer and use it regularly. Laptop energy waste is out of sight and out of mind for most- especially college students who have more power strips and plugs than we know what to do with. I took a tour of all the rooms in my house and saw dozens of computers blinking idly, power strips plugged in over night, laptops left open. And it’s not just college students- the workforce contributes to as much phantom load if not more.

It’s an invisible epidemic that has such a simple solution- TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. Powering down your laptop is an example of a small and cheap behavior tweak that offers huge energy saving benefits.

Here are some quick facts on the connection between laptop use and energy savings:

A computer in idle mode uses 20 to 50 times the power of a computer in standby mode. Always enable the energy saving settings
Disable screen savers to reduce energy use. Set printers to sleep mode
Powers down all electronics when not in use- unplug power strips at the end of the day to eliminate phantom load.

HP recently launched its Power to Change campaign, encouraging laptop users all over the globe to turn off their computers. The downloadable widget tracks your computer’s cumulative energy savings, compares them with other participants, and averages a net percentage of how many times you powered down your computer. Over 24,000 people have downloaded the widget (including yours truly), and are tracking their energy savings right now.

HP estimates that if 100,000 users shut down their computers at the end of the day, energy savings could total more than 2,690 kilo-watt hours and result in a 3,500 pound reduction in CO2- that’s an equivalent of eliminating more than 105 cars from the road each day.

To do your part, download the widget and start tracking your laptop habits. Better yet, take a tour of your house and unplug all idle chargers and tell your co-workers to power down their laptops before leaving the office- make it an office or dorm resolution! The globe, and your laptop, will thank you for it!

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