Go Green With Your Computer

Sep 17th, 2008 | By Green Snob | Category: Sustainable Living

Rating 3.00 out of 5

chairs More and more tech companies are investing their research to create products that decreases energy consumption. From printers that automatically go to sleep when they’re inactive to better computer chips, green is the way to go. If you are looking for a new computer, look into laptops instead of desktops, which suck a lot of energy.

The latest Apple Macbook Air uses the least energy of any Mac. You can even use the SimpleTech external drive for extra memory. It’s made of recyclable aluminum and bamboo and also has an automatic setting to turn on and off. Hewlett-Packard has a new printer, the Deskjet D2545 that is made of 83% recycled plastic and has the automatic sleep option.

While you may not be in the market for buying a brand new computer, there are also other ways to reduce your energy use. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, you can download the EZ Wizard from Energy Star, a free application that will help you enable power management features on your monitor and computer in just a few minutes.

Google Desktop also has a program for Windows XP and Vista. Once you download Google Desktop, you can add a gadget that helps you save energy by minimizing your PC’s power consumption when it’s not actively in use. It does this by enabling and optimizing your Windows power settings to EPA recommended standards. It even tells you how much energy you have saved individually and collectively. You can even set the program to “Pause” when you are watching a movie on your computer or giving a presentation.

You can set your Apple computer to energy saving mode by customizing the amount of time when your computer is idle to turn it to sleep mode or completely off. By adjusting your screen brightness, you can also reduce the amount of energy you are using. Apple also has a free recycling program for Apple and other manufacturers with the purchase of a new Mac.

There are also a ton of companies, such as Best Buy, Techforward and Circuit City who will give you credit or cash for your old electronics. We recently wrote about a few companies that will give you cash for your electronics.

With this new information at hand, go forth and be green!