It can be easy to forget how much energy your computer uses up every single day. After all, so many things accessed from your computer are free including all types of services like free news, videos, music, gaming, and even free web hosting. But the energy used to run computers as they perform daily tasks ultimately isn’t free, evident from the high energy bills and harmful carbon emissions. Even when you are away from your computer, the environment still pays significantly if you don’t make some simple changes.

Power Off at the End of the Day
This may seem obvious but many people simply don’t make this a habit. Think of all the energy you can save if you turn off your office computer, along with separate monitors, at the end of every single day and on weekends while you aren’t at work. The energy you’ll end up saving will be more than worth the few extra minutes you might have to wait. Although your computer will use some energy as it turns on, it is still less than the energy that is used when a computer is on for extended periods of time.
In addition to powering off at the end of the day, turn off the monitor if you won’t be using your computer for more than 20 minutes, and even consider turning off everything if you won’t be at your computer for more than 2 hours during the day. It may seem like small amounts of time, but it all adds up.

Use a Universal Power Strip
Even when you turn electronic equipment such as computers off, they still draw an idle electrical current. You can solve this problem by having all your computer’s components plugged into a power strip. Each night, you simply flip the power switch of the strip and unplug it from the wall. This makes for a much easier solution than unplugging every single component from the wall.

Adjust the Settings
Find out how to run your computer in the lowest power setting, and set the screen’s brightness at the lowest level that feels comfortable for you. Chances are, you won’t notice any difference in performance. Change the sleep mode and power down settings so that your computer will enter sleep mode if you aren’t using it after a few minutes. Your computer will still be available at your fingertips quickly with a tap on the keyboard or move of the mouse. Pay attention to how many applications are running at once and turn off the ones that you aren’t using at that given time. Also, you probably don’t need so many applications to start up when you turn on your computer so adjust the preferences on those specific applications to make sure they don’t start up unless you do it yourself.

Look for the Energy Star
If you happen to be looking for a new computer, check Energy Stars list of qualified computers on their website. These Energy Star certified desktops and laptops passed the government’s strict requirements for estimated annual energy consumption.