Less Than Optimal Manual & Automatic Solutions

There are of course various solutions to this problem. You could for example turn off your monitor manually. The downside is that the average screen won’t wake up in response to moving the mouse, you will have to turn it on manually.

Have you ever tried to turn off a laptop screen? Most laptops don’t offer this feature anymore or it is well hidden. While you could optimize your power management settings to only turn off the screen when you close the lid, that again requires a lot of manual intervention.

Another alternative would be to work with the Windows power management. However, an energy efficient setting that turns your screen off quickly can turn out to be quite annoying, for example when you are trying to read an article. The best and most flexible solution is to take it into your own hands, but in a smart way.

Convenient Solutions

Sleeper is an executable utility, which allows you to turn your screen off. It does not require an installation and will not occupy any memory. You can assign a hotkey to activate it, as described below. Otherwise, simply double-click the icon and your monitor will turn off.

NirCmd is a small command-line utility, which can complete a range of tasks, which includes turning your monitor off. You can run NirCmd without installation. However, if you want to use it regularly, it’s more convenient to install it and thus not having to type the full path every time you want to run a command.

To install NirCmd in Windows 7, right-click nircmd.exe and select > Run as administrator. In Windows XP make sure you are logged in as Administrator. Next, click the > Copy To Windows Directory button.

Also confirm with > Yes in the following window. Once the operation is completed, click > OK in the previous window.

Now that NirCmd is installed, you can use it to turn off your monitor and complete other tasks. Admittedly, opening the command line and typing a command every time you want to turn off your screen is probably the most inconvenient solution of all. However, you only have to do it once in order to create a shortcut, which you can then assign a hotkey to.

Click > [Windows]+[R] to open the Run utility, then type > cmd and click > OK.

In the command line, type the following command and hit Enter:

nircmd.exe cmdshortcutkey "c:\temp" "Turn Monitor Off" monitor off

If you did not copy nircmd.exe to the Windows Directory, spell out the full path. Instead of ‘c:\temp‘ you can choose any other location for the shortcut file. ‘Turn Monitor Off‘ will be the name of the shortcut file, you can choose a different name.

Monitor Off is an all-in-one tool. It can turn off your monitor, you can create a hotkey to do so, and you can set several additional preferences, for example locking the workstation when the monitor is turned off, setting a shut off delay, or starting a screensaver. The drawback is that this utility must be installed and will run in your memory.

If you’re interested in learning more about this tool, read Saikat’s article MonitorOff – Software to Switch Off Your Monitor & Save Energy.

How To Assign a Hotkey To Run Any Tool

This works for any executable, including the tools above. Note that Monitor Off comes with its own hotkey setup.

First, right-click the .exe file and select > Create shortcut. Note that you have already created a shortcut for NirCmd, if you followed the steps above.

Next, right-click the shortcut file and select > Properties. Place the mouse in the > Shortcut key: field, which should say ‘None’, and click your keyboard shortcut, for example [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[J]. Click > OK to confirm.

Finally, test your shortcut key and enjoy!

More Energy Saving Tips

If you are as energy conscious as I am, you might want to skim through the following articles:

• Does Saving Energy With Your PC Really Help Your Wallet?
• 5 Ways To Reduce The Power Consumption Of Your Computer
• The Ultimate 5 Ways to Go Green on Your Computer
• 7 Websites With Energy Calculators That Can Help You Save Energy This Summer And Live A Greener Life
• Save Energy and Go Green on Windows using Edison

So do you diligently turn off your monitor to save energy every time you leave your desk? Why would you not do it if it’s so easy?

Image credits: SCOTTCHAN, Monkey Business Images

In this article I will explain how to set up a custom power plan, how to access advanced features, and what they do. I will look at various power off or sleep modes in particular.

Customize Power Plan

To access your Windows 7 power management plan, go to > Start and type > power options in the search field. Under > Control Panel pick the top result, i.e. > Power Options.

Windows 7 offers three standard power plans: Balanced, Power saver, and High performance.

You can also create a custom power plan by clicking the respective link in the left-hand sidebar.

To customize the individual setup of a power plan, click > Change plan settings next to its name.

In the window that follows, you can change several basic settings. If you’re using Windows 7 on a laptop, you will be offered different options for running the computer on battery or plugged in. The screenshot below shows the default settings, which can be restored by clicking the respective link in the bottom left.

To make the most of your battery charge, keep the respective settings on the low side. The default settings are pretty good and on top of that I would recommend to reduce the screen brightness.

Access Advanced Power Options

For several more options, click the > Change advanced power settings link in the bottom left. In the new window that opens also click > Change settings that are currently unavailable to access the full range of advanced settings.

This is where customizing gets fun! You’re presented with a host of options, some of which can completely change the behavior of your computer. Let’s look into them in more detail.

• Balanced: Here you can set whether a password is required after wakeup when on battery or plugged in.
• Hard disk: Decide when to turn off the hard disk in battery or plugged in mode.
• Desktop background settings: Set the slide show to be available or paused.
• Wireless Adapter Settings: Choose between different power saving modes: Maximum Performance, Lower Power Saving, Medium Power Saving, or Maximum Power Saving.
• Sleep: Make your computer go to sleep after a set time, allow hybrid sleep, make it hibernate after a set time, and allow wake timers. More details on these options below.
• USB settings: Enable or disable USB selective suspend setting. See this article for details.
• Power buttons and lid: Allows you to set custom lid close action, power button action, and sleep button action.
• PCI Express: Set the Link State Power Management to off, moderate or maximum power savings.
• Processor power management: Adjust the minimum or maximum processor state and system cooling policy. This option depends on your CPU and allows you to underclock your CPU.
• Display: This includes the basic display settings and on top of that you can set the dimmed display brightness.
• Multimedia settings: Adjust multimedia settings for sharing media or playing videos.
• Battery: Here you can set levels for low, critical, and reserve battery, as well as set a low battery notification, and choose actions for low and critical battery levels.

In addition, you may see other system specific options, which I have not mentioned above. For example graphics cards (ATI, NVidia) usually offer custom power settings. Some of the settings are clear and simple. Others may require some more explaining.

Sleep Modes Explained

In the actual Sleep mode, the computer doesn’t turn off completely and still uses a lot of energy to power the RAM. Monitor and hard disk are turned off, but as soon as you touch the mouse, the computer wakes up.

Hibernate means that the computer essentially turns off, but first the RAM is saved on the hard drive. When you reboot the computer, the RAM is loaded from the hard drive, so that you can continue where you left. This procedure can take a minute or two.

Hybrid Sleep is a mix of sleep and hibernate. The computer will go into sleep mode, but it will also save the RAM to the hard disk. If the battery runs out or power fails while during hybrid sleep, the computer will reboot as if it had been in hibernate.

Wake Timers allow the computer to be woken from sleep or hibernate, for example in response to a scheduled task (set respective trigger condition). This can be used to run backups and other remote tasks during the night.

Additional Reading

Besides getting some more computing time out of a single battery charge, picking the right power settings can also save you money, as Matt shows in his article Does Saving Energy With Your PC Really Help Your Wallet?

Several more Windows 7 power management energy saving tips can be found in the following articles:

• The Ultimate 5 Ways to Go Green on Your Computer
• 5 Ways To Reduce The Power Consumption Of Your Computer
• Save Energy and Go Green on Windows using Edison
• How to Save Power with SetPower (Computer Power Management Tool)

Are you worried about your power settings? What has worked best for you?

Image Credits: Digital Genetics

Computers, like all electronics, consume a fair amount of electricity. And while the efficiency of the modern computer hardware has improved relative to older parts, there’s still a lot of energy wasted.

Finding ways to save energy with your PC will not only help save the planet. It can also reduce your power bill. But by how much? Let’s have a look at some common energy saving tactics and gauge their impact.

Turning Off Your Computer – Or Putting It To Sleep

A modern computer uses far less energy at idle than it does at load. In fact, stress testing can increase a computer’s power draw by as much as five times as the processors, graphics card and other components attempt to meet the demands of the user.

Still, an idle computer does continue to use energy. How much? Well, according to a recent Tech Report processor review, a modern desktop computer with an Intel Core processor uses 64 watts of power at idle.

Let’s assume that you left your computer on, but at idle, while you slept. Assuming you receive a full eight hours, and that you sleep every night with your computer on, you’ll have used 186,880 watt-hours of energy. Assuming an average price of $12.06, you’re looking at a yearly cost of $22.53.

Obviously, these numbers might vary significantly based on where you live, so try plugging your own figures in this formula.

(Power usage in watts x hours of usage saved) x 365 = Yearly power draw in watt-hours

Yearly power draw / 1000 = Conversion to kilowatt-hours

Kilowatt-hours x Price per kilowatt-hour = Final cost

Keep in mind that this is simply the extra cost of running the computer at idle overnight, which is added to the total energy cost of running your computer.  Those who have multiple computers will multiply their savings if this power saving tactic is used.

Adjusting Your Monitor Sleep Settings 

Computer monitors are, from the perspective of energy use, nothing more than big light bulbs. In order to form a visible image a light must shine through the LCD panel, and the power used by that light makes up most of a monitor’s overall power draw.

You can save energy and money by aggressively turning off the monitor even if you need your computer to run in the background, a task that can be accomplished using the Windows Power Management settings or the Energy Saver settings of an OS X machine.

Try changing your monitor settings so that the display turns off automatically after three to five minutes. It’s hard to say how much this will save you, because different people have different usage patterns, but let’s say that you frequently go to and from your computer, resulting in a large amount of time where the display is on by not being used – four hours a day sounds like a nice, round figure. We’ll also assume that an average 24-inch monitor is used, which has a power draw of 35 watts.

By adapting the formula above, we find that this scenario saves 51,100 watt-hours of energy per year if  power management settings for the monitor are changed, which results in a monetary savings of $6.16 per year.

That’s nothing for a home user, but it can be a more serious issue for a business that owns a hundred monitors or more. It should also be noted that users of less energy efficient monitors, such as large IPS displays and of course CRTs, will reap much larger rewards from aggressive power management because of the higher power draw of such displays. In some cases, these less efficient monitors draw more power than the computers they’re connected to.

Reducing Time At Load 

Earlier, it was mentioned that computers use several times more energy at load than they do at idle. Usually, a computer left unattended will be at idle, but that’s not always the case. Leaving a program running can increase power consumption, and there are certain programs – like Bitcoin miners and distributed research software like SETI@home – that are specifically designed to convert idle time into load time.

Let’s go back to the modern Intel Core as a baseline. According to the Tech Report review referenced earlier, a Core i7-2600K will use 144 watts at load. So what happens if your processor is being used when you’re sleeping?

According to the formula, additional power draw per year increases by 420,480 watt-hours, which works out to about $50 per year. Remember, that’s an additional $50 on top of all the other energy costs of running your PC.

The Core i7-2600K represents a relatively good scenario, however. If you instead owned a Phenom X6 1100T processor, for example, your additional cost for running at load while you’re asleep would be about $70 per year, or $20 more than with the Core i7.

 Conclusion – Interpreting the Results

 As you can see, you’re not likely to go broke by using your computer. The power draw of a modern PC is not insignificant, but it’s not a large percentage of your average household’s power usage. Major appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators and heaters still consume the majority of a home’s power.

With that said, the numbers above do show that you can save money by reducing the energy your computer or computer use. Households with multiple PCs will see the biggest benefit, of course, and businesses are also good candidates for saving money by reducing energy consumption. A small business that asks its employees to turn off their computers before going home could save several thousand dollars a year.

I can’t give you the figures right here that will show the power saving effects when you switch off your monitor when you aren’t using it. But it must be something when you consider that a LCD monitor consumes 20 -30 Watts and a CRT glows with 70 ““ 80 Watts.

When computers sleep or are on standby, there is some minimal energy consumption but it is far lower than when they running in all their glory. Putting our computers on standby is a wonderful habit to develop. Shutting off the monitor is a first step towards lesser power consumption.

The benefit is not related to eco-consciousness alone but also to our wallets. Energy savings means lower bills. Lesser monitor usage means better battery life of laptops. That again lowers the running cost of a computer.

If I have managed to wake up your interest then let’s look at that 420Kb sized freeware we were speaking about. Rather aptly, it’s called Monitor Off.

Monitor Off just asks you for a few settings and makes you and your monitor an energy saver. Computers have their own power saving schemes and you set it to turn off the monitors after a predetermined interval or start a screensaver (please note that screensavers usually do not save power). Monitor Off gives the user more hands on control over the power options of a monitor.

Monitor Off can be downloaded and installed or can be run as a standalone program (i.e. without an installation). Either way, it runs minimized in the background. Here are the three things you can make it do :

Setup Monitor Off To Switch Off Display Or Start The Screensaver

For energy saving with a keystroke you can enable hot keys.

Also, activate the screensaver with another set of hot keys.

Alternatively, you can use the right click on the system tray icon as a toggle switch to turn off the display or start the screensaver. Another option is to set the tray icon to take a double click as a switch off command.

Setup Monitor Switch Off Delay

You can set the number of seconds the program delays switching off the monitors after monitor power off action. The default is 10 seconds. During this delay interval, the operation can be aborted.

Setup Monitor Off To Lock The Computer Before Switching Off

This combines a power saving with a bit of security, especially in an office environment. Thinking of going to the water cooler? Set this option and the computer display will power down and lock the display. The program supports multiple displays. Though, I couldn’t test this aspect – going by the words on the website, it should be able to handle double display workstations.

The energy saving freeware is a no hassle piece of software and the best thing about it is that it’s portable too. Monitor Off (v1.0) is supported on Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista and requires NET Framework 2.0 or later.

Do you use a specific energy management app? Or do you leave the energy saving to Windows default settings? But before you comment, do read our posts on how computers can be used to save the world.

Download: Monitor Off

Thus, cutting down on energy waste, cutting down on your energy bills and cutting down the pangs you might have for spoiling the environment.

Are you one of those who should use SetPower?

• You use computers throughout the day.
• You use Windows’ own power feature but you want more fine-tuned control over it.
• You want your computer to be instantly ready for action when you want it to.
• You forget to shut off the computer after the day’s work.

If you have any of these attributes or all of them, then the SetPower computer power management application is worth a try. SetPower returns control to the user who missed having a time bound power management feature bundled with Windows. SetPower enhances the capabilities of the in-built Power management settings by letting the user set it by the clock.

Starting with the installation, let’s take a look at how it does its bit for the environment.

Setup starts with an installer which downloads the full installation. SetPower installs as a Control Panel applet and occupies a minuscule 435KB of space.

• Energy saving starts with adding Power Plan Schedules.

• Scheduled power plans can be set up for specific times of the day and specific days of the week. SetPower monitors the power source ““ direct or battery and manages the response accordingly. SetPower  uses the Task Scheduler to trigger the timers behind the power saving operations.

• Computer power management can be according to three schemes or modes ““ Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance. SetPower can be set to turn the display off, go to sleep mode, and hibernate by time of day and day of week for any of the three modes.

• SetPower also provides an easily configurable way using two typical wizards. The wizards are simple one step solutions to set power plans based on the active and inactive times of computer usage. For instance, a high performance power plan is a fit for peak working hours while the sleep mode can kick in when the computer is left idle.

• Using the first wizard, a user needs to set times for his active usage and another for an inactive time like late at night.

Using the second wizard, a user can set the power schedules around his daily activity as shown in the screenshot.

The set power plans does not stop the user from using his computer the normal way against the preset schedules. The power plans also can be modified by double clicking and changing the times.

Applying SetPower to save

To save on energy costs first and the environment second seems like a good idea. The developers claim that SetPower can help save $10/month or $120/year by changing how you use your computer during the day and night. That’s an attractive thought for a person who doesn’t use the Shut Down button too much.

As a small freeware (only for personal use), SetPower has lots going for it. An easily configurable interface with simple time based settings. SetPower also works along with the in-built computer power management feature in Windows. Both AC and battery supply are covered in the scheme of things.

So for simplicity’s sake and for drip by drip power savings, SetPower is set and on.

Some essential requirements for SetPower are:

• NET Framework 2.0
• ACPI Compliant Hardware (Standby or Sleep should be an option in the Windows shutdown dialog)

SetPower is free for personal use and is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Image Credit: orocain

The application is called Edison. Edison allows you to conserve energy by modifying the powers settings of your computer. A nice little app you can download and install free from here. Edison requires .NET framework 2.0 so if you don’t already have it make sure you download the 27MB file. Once installed you are required to register for a free account on developer’s website which I found a bit annoying.

Edison basically manages Windows power settings and allow you to apply different power settings depending upon your needs. However its a bit more than just powers settings. Edison allows you to define the timings during which you generally use your computer then you can have two different sets of power settings for “work time” and “non-work time”. This would allow you to get more aggressive with saving power. If on the other hand you can completely switch off your computer during the “non-work time” then, well nothing like it!

To customize the schedule just hop over to the “Schedule” Tab and enter in the required details to define the work time. As for the actual power savings you can simply move the slider to adjust the power settings. As you move the slider you can see the settings change below the slider. If you are looking for something else you can click on custom button and then key in your values.

Edison also displays your savings by using the current settings. You can customize the rate it uses to calculate the savings by clicking on the underlined rate per kwh and enter your custom rate to display the savings according to the rate in your area.

Overall Edison is a nice little app that gives you greater control over power management and thus would allow you to save some energy and go green. Do you know of some similar apps? How do you do your bit to save energy?

Here are 5 ways you can help to decrease power consumption on your computer.

1. Tweak Google to Save Power

Blackle was created to provide a front end to Google, but with a black background.  Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black.  A given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen, so you get all the goodness of Google and with all the additional environmental benefits.

Yes, the difference a single computer makes is small, put together, this small tweak to Google has a potential to save 750 Megawatt hours a year.  As of now, they’ve already saved more than a million watt hours with this tool!

The whole concept of Blackle is slightly controversial though and it has its detractors.  This Wall Street Journal article claims that only older CRT monitors will see any benefit from the site.

2. Optimize Windows and Track How Much CO₂ You’ve Saved

CO2 Saver is a free toolbar released by Snap and is a lightweight application that runs in Windows. It adjusts your Windows power settings so that your computer, monitor and hard drive consumes less electricity when you’re not actively using them (similar to what you could do by adjusting your power options in Windows).

It then calculates how much power is saved, and converts it into pounds of CO₂ emissions prevented by having the toolbar installed.  You can see the amount of CO₂ saved by yourself and all toolbar users together so you can view the collective effort and what you have contributed to it.

At the time of writing, users of this tool have collectively saved more than 850,000 lbs of CO₂!

3. Use Energy Efficient Products

Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products.  When you buy electronics, look for the logo (pictured above) or ask for similarly certified products.  This ensures that you’ll get something which is pretty much efficient in its class.

4. Use LCD monitors rather than CRT

Some sources quote CRT monitors as consuming 250% more power than LCD screens of similar size.  So if you’re looking to cut down on the power bill, consider dumping that old monitor and moving on to a less power hungry LCD which incidentally would also be much sexier looking on the table, and deliver crisper sharper images than a CRT.

5. Adjust Your Computer Settings

Whether you’re using a Mac OSX or Windows, you can adjust your settings accordingly so your system can power down when you’re idle.  On Windows, go to Control Panel then power options to fine tune when you want your computer to turn down the hard disk, monitor, or go into standby mode.

On a Mac, go to System Preferences, then Energy Saver pane, and then Sleep to adjust your energy saving settings.

So there you have it, five simple ways you can help save power on your computer. What methods do you use? I’m curious to know. Tell us in the comments!

For a start I have to partly destroy a myth. You have probably heard about the search engine Blackle which claims to save energy due to dark screens requiring less energy than light screens. In fact, this is only true for CRT monitors. On LCD monitors a mainly black screen may actually consume more energy than a predominantly white screen [Source]. Although the difference is marginal and also depends on your individual monitor, what remains is the spirit: every little bit, no matter how tiny, will help to make a difference – and this is where you come in.

Understand the ecological footprint

A global footprint of 1 means that it takes the Earth one year to regenerate what we use in one year. So this is the maximum footprint our planet can handle in the long run. Currently, humanity as a whole has a footprint of 1.3 and that global footprint will reach 2 by the 2030′s. That means our ecosystem will soon begin to collapse entirely. That’s unless we do something about it.

You can learn more about the ecological footprint on Global Footprint Network. There is also a personal footprint quiz available for people from the USA and Australia.

Calculate your footprint

The calculation will give you an idea of how much you and people with a similar footprint will have to improve in order to take up less space and let the rest of the world fit in.

There are many different types of footprint calculators. Most will calculate your carbon footprint. The more details they ask of you, the better you’ll be able to realize where you can possibly save. On the other hand, you may not be able to give all the details. However, more important than to calculate the exact footprint is to understand where you can decrease your footprint.

The best and most comprehensive calculator I found was the Ecological Footprint Quiz from MyFootprint. Most calculators are only available for single countries. This one however is available for all countries on this planet. Below you see an exemplary result.

Take action

Now that you have an idea of how lavish your lifestyle really is, it’s time to do something about it. You can achieve a lot with small changes that don’t even hurt (much). It does take some thought and possibly some extra time, but the quality of your life will increase rather than decrease. The really good news is, it may save you money quickly and it may save your life or the lives of our children in the not so distant future.

Cut Your Footprint has a list of the Top 10 Ways to Cut Your Carbon Footprint , which is a great way to get started if you have no idea at all.

Here’s the short version:

1. Use energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs
2. Measure your Footprint – hopefully you already did.
3. Avoid plastic grocery bags.
4. Use a programmable thermostat to heat your home.
5. Recycle!
6. Properly Inflate your tires.
7. Run only full loads of washing for clothes and dishes.
8. Air seal and insulate your home.
9. Air dry your washing.
10. Use a water saving shower head.

A much more detailed list can be found in the wikiHow article How to Save the Environment at Home. Follow the links at the bottom for many more great articles.

Finally the longest list of realistic items and the one I most highly recommend everyone to go through is from Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life: 100 Ways to Save The Environment.

Spread the word

If you’re so inclined and really want to make a difference, get your friends involved and help them get started. This is not just a fashion, it really matters.

What do you do to preserve the environment and what are you never going to do?