A series that runs every Tuesday, where I ask questions unrelated to the environment, fair trade, or local politics that I’ve been wondering about but haven’t been able to google the answers to. Any advice is appreciated.
It’s quite possible that perhaps I need to get more tech-nerdy if I’m gonna be a long-time blogger. But ya know, I’m not there yet. Thus, another Tuesday question for the tech nerds out there:
Would you download Local Cooling and use it? Why or why not?
Local Cooling sounds like a good idea on its website, which says it’ll:
* Cut your energy bills.
* Reduce the amount of Greenhouse Gas CO2 emissions as a direct result of your reduced PC power consumption.
* Give you full control over any power mode settings.
* Improve your overall computing experience and efficiency.
* Show you in detail how much you have saved since installing the software.
What I’m having trouble figuring out is how downloading Local Cooling’s different from just doing what I already do to conserve PC energy consumption. If I don’t touch my laptop for 15 mins or so, it goes into sleep mode. And if I’m taking a longer break, I always unplug my laptop and either shut it down or put it in hibernation.
I’m wondering if any of you techy computer experts have an opinion on what a green computer user’s to do. Make the sleep mode go into effect faster (and if so, how)? Shut down instead of hibernating? Or simply download Local Cooling?
LocalCooling is just a pretty widget–it doesn’t do anything that your power-savings options in Windows don’t already do. It takes less energy to shut off your computer and reboot later than it does to keep it running. If you don’t have the patience to wait for your PC to boot up, though, sleep mode is your next best option, because it draws very little power.
To adjust your power-savings options, click on the Windows icon, choose Control Panel, and then click on Power Options.
Comment by Jasmin — March 20, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
Other options to consider:
Turn off your wi-fi when you aren’t using it.
Set the screen to less-than-maximum brightness (the lcd monitors are the biggest power-suck in your typical laptop.
This last one I’m not sure if it’s true, but I thought I’d share it to see if people have heard similarly:
Don’t leave things plugged in when you aren’t using them (like monitors, docking stations, power chargers). These devices drain power, even when off. TVs certainly do.
Last bit of green laptop-using: If you kill your battery (they rarely last more than 3 years), you can drop it off at almost any Rite Aid, Walgreens, hardware stores. Maybe also cell-phone stores. Along with any other battery (alkaline, lithium, nicad, etc.). I think there’s a law that obliges people who sell batteries to collect them for you to dispose of them properly.
Comment by Rafi — March 20, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
It *might* theoretically fiddle with internal settings, forcing your CPU to run at lower frequencies. Which could save some energy.
There are a couple of other things they could do that go a bit beyond Windows settings, but the fact that they have *no* technical info whatsoever on their site screams “snakeoil” to me.
I’d be extremely wary of anything that
* has no technical details
* promises things almost too good to be true
* connects to the network
Plus, I use a Mac, so it’s useless for me ;)
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — March 20, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
get one of those power meters for the wall socket. compare with and without localcooling. also good for measuring the electricity consumption of any other power sucker you might have at home … turning off the computer is the best energy saver tip :-)
i guess most do not turn off their computer over lunch (or extended breaks) because it takes so long to start up the computer. i usually leave it on over lunch for the daily virus scan.
Comment by Johan — March 21, 2007 @ 2:46 am
I agree with Robert that their app. info. page is, um, very beta looking. But the concept itself is intriguing – translating power consumption into more environmentally-minded metrics. I’d wait until the app. is out of beta before testing it out.
Until then, tweaking the monitor settings is probably your best option (esp. since battery life is always an issue). Sounds like you’re already doing 95-99% of what you can, which is great.
Comment by Fletch — March 21, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
Thanks for weighing in, everyone! Looks like we unilaterally agree that downloading Local Cooling won’t really do more than just being smart re: computer use.
Also — thanks for the instructions, Jasmin. I went into my control panel and adjusted things a bit to save more energy :)
Comment by Siel — March 22, 2007 @ 11:30 am