Shut down your PC when done

One unit of power saved is equivalent to three units generated. That is no mere rhetoric. As the energy crisis deepens and new sources still in the lab stage, the prudent way to adjust demand and supply is to conserve. This is something governments, institutions and individuals can do.

For instances, most offices use computers today. The CPU of any computer if shut off from the cabinet switch, still consumes around 5-7 watts. According to a post in the IAEMP group, any computer that is in use for say 10 hrs (14 hrs idle) consumes around 35 kWh in one year for no work.

This also means an additional 12 to 15 kWh for air-conditioning load to take this heat out. So it means almost 50 kWh wasted per computer per year. Multiply that with the number of computers left idling and you have a power surge!

For big companies, the power saved thus could be used to light at least one of those un-electrified villages! The same goes for UPS as well.

And if you want your computer to continue receiving updates, or transmit/receive information of any kind during the wee hours of the night, you need to leave it on. But even the lowest power settings generally burn more power than you need to do that minimal amount of computing.

Computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research have created a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers that induces a new energy saving state known as "sleep talking."

Normally PCs can be in either awake mode—where they consume power even if they are not being used, or in a low power sleep mode—where they save substantial power but are essentially inactive and unresponsive to network traffic. The new sleep talking state provides much of the energy savings of sleep mode and some of the network-and-Internet-connected convenience of the awake mode.

In most offices, the air conditioner is set to 18 to 23 deg C while a 24 or 25 deg C is more than sufficient and comfortable. In the process energy and money can be saved. If you have two lifts in your office, why not assign them for alternate floors? This will save energy and time.