ENERGY STAR Says ‘Power Down Your Computer!’

I cannot recall who first imparted these false words of wisdom upon me, but I am sure you have all heard something to this affect at some point: ‘It takes more energy to power down and reboot your computer than if you just left it in sleep mode, so you might as well just leave it on.’  Well, ENERGY STAR, has thoroughly debunked this myth. Here are some power saving tips direct from ENERGY STAR:

• At the end of your work, homework, or Internet session, be sure to turn your computer and monitor off. Contrary to what most people believe, turning computers and monitors off saves a lot of energy and will not hurt the equipment or waste energy by having to boot up again.

• Be careful with screen savers. They actually might be screen wasters as they may keep your monitor from powering down. Just make sure that your screen saver is not programmed to overlap your computer’s sleep mode, since then it won’t go to sleep but will instead stay on to run the screen saver.

• Use the ENERGY STAR power management settings on your computer and monitor so they go into power save mode when not in use. Also use a power strip as a central “turn off” point when you are not using equipment to completely disconnect the power supply.