Just in Time for Earth Day: Five Helpful Tips for a Green PC

By Ryan Smith, Director of Product Marketing at Avanquest Software

High powered PCs, and even lower powered PCs, can quickly consume a lot of energy and cost extra money every time you turn your computer on and off. You might think that buying that energy efficient light bulb or recycling will help minimize the impact, but if you truly want to go green for a better world, check out the following helpful Green PC Tips.

By using PC optimization tools, you’ll be able to optimize computer speed, use your hardware and memory more efficiently, and fix small issues that add up to big power consumption.

How Much Energy Can You Save?

In 2007, the EPA estimated that there were over 65 million desktop computers running in the United States with even more laptops coming into use every day. If you leave your computer on day and night, you could be wasting hundreds of dollars that could be better spent elsewhere. Even if you place your computer on a low power setting, sleeping computers still process data and continue to consume energy

Families with multiple computers face even larger costs to keep their computers up and running. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to avoid unnecessary spending and help the environment.

Turn Computer Monitors off at Night

Powering down your monitor instead of letting it go to sleep is a simple action that will save money over time. If your monitor is on, your computer will need to run its fan to cool down as it’s still processing data. Plus, if you’re running a screensaver you’re also consuming excess energy.

Tip: Try to avoid using desktop backgrounds with bright colors, and lower the brightness settings on your monitor, to reduce power consumption while you actively use your computer.

Screensavers can be fun in the right situations, but if you’re planning on leaving your computer for longer than a few minutes, your screensaver will keep it running even longer before going to sleep. You’ll actually consume more energy when you use a screensaver simply by walking away from your computer.

Using Energy Saving Modes

Your computer has several settings you can use to adjust how it consumes energy. Setting standby mode to kick in after 5 minutes instead of 15 is one small change that can really impact energy consumption. Windows actually has two levels of low power modes.

In Standby mode, your computer defaults to a low power state. It will quickly react when you try to wake it up because it is still running background processes, even though your computer appears to be asleep.

Hibernation is the better option, but it requires your computer to load the Operating System from a powered down state. It won’t be as slow as rebooting, but it is definitely slower than standby mode. The advantage is that your computer will consume less power and process less data in hibernation.

Tip: Try telling your computer to go to standby after 5 minutes of idle and hibernate after 30 minutes of idle for a nice balance of both.

Optimize Your Boot Up Time

The number one reason for leaving a computer in sleep mode is to avoid a lengthy boot up, but that’s where PC optimization tools can help the most:

Use a utility program to clean out your registry files. Removing registry files will save your computer resources as it handles data packets.
Clean up wasted disk space. Cleaning up useless files and data is one of the best things you can do to maintain your computer.
Optimize the way your computer manages its own memory. Processes will run smoother and your boot up time will decrease.

Tip: Running diagnostics on a regular basis will remove clutter and decrease boot up times.

Get More Life Out of Your Computer

When it comes to computers, the easiest way to make sure you save energy and get a long life from your machine is to keep it well tuned. Windows can help you manage some elements like disk defragmentation, but it is better to install a PC utility program that is an all-in-one tool.

Some programs, like Avantquest's SystemSuite™ 11 Professional, which includes over 250 tests to help fix, protect and optimize a PC, allows thorough disk profiles for specific tasks, like gaming, multimedia or office work, which you can use to keep your computer running at optimum speeds.

Tip: With regular use, Active Intelligence can speed up computers up to 25%.

A PC utility program also checks your memory, hard drives, network cards and more to ensure your PC’s hardware is working properly for a long time to come.

Recycling Old Technology

A great way to dispose of obsolete technology is to recycle it. Roughly 18% of materials manufactured for computers are recycled. Some facilities charge a fee for electronics disposal, so there is a growing trend with computer users to donate older technology back to their community. Before you decide how to recycle your old computer, make sure you’ve taken measures to secure it first:

Securely shred old documents and personal files using a File Shredder
Create your own Rescue CD in case something goes wrong in the future
Run Anti-virus and Anti-Malware tools to thoroughly clean the PC. Some PC optimization programs like Avantquest's SystemSuite and Fix-It Utilities also include anti-virus and anti-malware protection.
You could also format your hard drive and reinstall your Operating System from scratch
Run diagnostics instead of wiping the drive entirely, which is a huge time saver.

This Earth Day, take action and begin to utilize these tips that will help with a Green PC and also help you save costs and reduce energy consumption.

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