Archive for May, 2007

Carbon-conscious changes


Do laptops generally use less power than desktop machines? I think they do. I’ve been trying to cut down on our electricity bills, and, as a consequence, our household carbon footprint. It’s a work-in-progress, it has to be, but the very act of thinking about the environment brings all sorts of questions and ideas to mind.

I’ve taken to keeping the desktop PC and USB-connected devices switched off most of the time. Only the wireless router is on 24 hours a day, and that’s because we use the Internet phone provided by BT to save money on phone bills. It’s just £4.99 a month on top of our broadband and line rental, for which we get all national and local calls included and cheaper international calls.

USB drives and hubs eat lots of power if left on, even in stand-by. We have a total of three drives connected to the main PC, one for documents, one for backups and one for music—around two terabytes when added up. Instead of leaving them on, they’re now switched off when not in use and instead I use a USB memory stick to carry important documents around. I just plug it into the iBook, and start working whenever. If I’m not using the stick, it consumes no power. It is inert.

Read the full article.

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007