Green Options » desktop

Renewable Energy Offset Credits Lets You Power Your Laptop with the Wind

Derek Markham — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:28:25 +0000

Looking for an eco-friendly gift this holiday season? How about a renewable energy offset for the computer lovers in your life?

Start-up company Powered Green offers a Wind Energy Sponsorship helping to stop hundreds of pounds of greenhouse gases by sponsoring new wind turbines that make enough clean, green energy to power a computer for seven years.

Read more of this story »

VeryPC Introduces Ultra Low Power Mini Desktop

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:43:23 +0000

Our friends over at SmartPlanet report that British computer manufacturer Very PC has introduced an incredibly low power mini desktop PC. The Fulwood uses only 16 watts while idling. While there are other computers that use a similarly low amount of energy, most of them are laptops.

Read more of this story »

E-Wasted: Where Will Your Computer and iPod Go to Die?

Simran Sethi — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:34:34 +0000

Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh are writing a series on the impacts of everyday things. They will be posting previews on Green Options before launching the posts on Huffington Post. Want to know how to green your internet porn (or emailing or iTunes) habit? Check out these tips and a post-mortem of where your computers go to die.

Recently, the world computer population surpassed 1 billion. It’s a legion of artificial intelligence that will never die, at least not while humans are around to see it.

The computer species appears to have a high mortality rate (whether due to the rapid progress of technology or an industry conspiracy to ensure that products must be replaced regularly). They “crash” and “die” in droves, their human counterparts literally kicking them to the curb. But there is no heaven, no place in the clouds, for the cold, hard shell once warmed by electrical currents. Once it has left your desk, your computer doesn’t disappear. In a sense, it lives on.

Read more of this story »

Erasing Electronics Buyer Remorse

Paul Smith — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:39:57 +0000

Recycling as an everyday practice has become more and more common these days. But what about all those gadgets you accumulate? What happens to them? There are many options out there, but for most, they involve more cost, effort, and time then our busy schedules or motivation will allow. Sure, there are some newer options such as Second Rotation, the company I profiled in January that quotes you a value for your product based on the condition you claim it’s in, then they inspect it, and either give you that amount, or a different agreed upon one. But even there, with the free shipping and the possibility of getting cash rather then spending it to recycle, it’s based on current market value, a wildly fluctuating amount, as the new half price twice the speed iPhone exemplifies.

What if you could guarantee exactly how much you’d get, based on how long you’ve owned it, at the time of purchase? This is now a reality, via the company Tech Forward. You can buy a product at any store you like, then purchase their Guaranteed Buyback service, which covers a wide range of electronics, from MP3 players to desktop computers.

Read more of this story »

Tame The Energy Hog on Your Desk: Service Helps Manage Computer Power

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:12:39 +0000

By now, most of us know that leaving our computers on when we’re not using them wastes energy. But exactly how much energy?
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, using the power management functions on your computer properly can cut your electric bill by up to $75 a year. But even more impressive is the greenhouse gas savings we could generate by managing our computers better: according to Carbonfund.org, activating the power management features on 100,000 computers and monitors would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 11 million pounds a year. That’s like burning 13,000 fewer barrels of oil, eliminating 5,000 car trips from Los Angeles to New York or planting 1,000 acres of trees

So why don’t more people set up their computers to be more energy-efficient?

Uncertainty and fear, according to support.com.

A remote tech support company based in Redwood City, California, support.com recently commissioned a survey of 1,000 Americans to learn what they knew about computer power management. The company found out that, while 87 percent of people said they were aware of those functions on their computers, more than half (57 percent) hadn’t activated them. Many of those said it was because they didn’t know how to set the functions, or they were afraid of doing it wrong.

Looking at those results, support.com decided to introduce a new service called "Green Computer." The free service, available as of this week by calling 800-PC-SUPPORT, helps people customize their computer’s power management functions to their personal preferences, walks through ways to make sure those functions are working properly, and suggests other ways to save on computer energy consumption. Each call takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

"In talking with consumers about energy-efficient computer use, we found there was a lot of confusion," said Scott Herring, vice president of marketing for support. com. "Some people weren’t aware of the power management functions, others didn’t know how to activate them, and even more didn’t understand the difference between a ’screensaver’ and putting a computer into ’sleep mode.’ People were surprised to hear that a screensaver is not an energy saver. By offering this free Green Computer service, support.com expects to help a lot of consumers perform a simple but effective act to save energy."

Besides activating your computer’s power management functions, you can cut your desktop’s energy consumption by following these other tips: turn your computer off completely if you know you won’t be using it for a few hours, make sure games and third-party software are shut down before putting your computer into sleep mode (otherwise, they might continue running in the background), disconnect your virtual private network when you’re not using it (again, leaving it connected can prevent your computer from sleeping properly), and close any open Web windows so banners and ads don’t interfere with your PC’s nap.

Oh, and forget the screensaver. Just like it’s best for people to go to bed with the TV off, computers sleep better (more energy-efficiently, anyway) with a blank screen.