wendy gauntt’s tech zest

Even if you don’t care about the environment, you can save energy – and money – by thinking green. Data centers spend so much of their budget on energy that they are now one of the biggest proponents of eco-friendly technology. When you run thousands of servers round the clock, even small improvements add up fast.

How about the average small business? Electricity costs for a dozen computers and a server or two can easily run into thousands of dollars each year. By using power management and a few extra tricks, you can drop your energy use dramatically.

Here are five energy saving tips that anyone can put in place:

1. Adjust your computer’s power management: allow it to shut off your display, stop the hard drive, and go into sleep mode after it’s been inactive for a short period of time.
2. Upgrade your equipment: LCD monitors require half the energy of a CRT monitor, and laptops – if appropriate – are far more energy efficient than desktop models.
3. Try dimming your monitor for additional savings. You may even find it’s easier on the eyes.
4. Unplug chargers when not in use, or get a power strip you can easily switch off. All those gadget chargers draw power regardless of whether you actually have the gadget hooked up.
5. Only use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on equipment that needs it, like your computer and monitor, and check out new models that are smart enough to know when your computer is turned off so it can shut down power to peripherals that aren’t in use.

Even if you don’t run a green business, these simple changes will net you the kind of green you are sure to love: more cold hard cash.