Windows 7 users… How often do you turn off your computer?  For those that are patient enough to wait for the computer to boot up and become usable, how long do you have to wait?

Windows 7 has become a lot faster than XP or Vista at “waking up” from “sleep”, that is, you don’t have to turn off your computer to save power.  Instead of shutting down, you can put it to “sleep”, which is a low-power consumption mode that enables you to save your computer’s state to memory while essentially turned off.  “Wake up” the computer by clicking your mouse button or hitting a key on the keyboard.  Using this feature enables your computer to return to its usable state in a fraction of the time.  This is a simple way to reduce one’s carbon footprint (for those energy conscious individuals).

Watts  x  Hours Used   x  Cost per kilowatt-hour

————————————————————-   =  Total Cost

1000

If you leave your computer on overnight doing nothing, you are still consuming power.  The power consumption varies widely from computer to computer.  For example, let’s say you have a computer with a 400W power supply.  Doing nothing but staying on, the computer will still use energy.  It may use 150W simply idling.  If you leave your computer on (idling) for 15 hours every night, and pay an average of $0.10 per kWh, your total cost per day is:

150  x  15  x  $0.10

————————–   =   $0.225, or $82.13 per year (+ $14 for hours spent idling on the weekend)

1000

Imagine how much money could be saved if everyone did this!

POST BY rschmidt