Being Green. What have you done to be Green?

[Technowraith]

There's a thread about being greent down the list, but it hasn't been posted in for over 6 months. The forum recommended I start a new thread rather than continue using the old one. If you mods disagree with that recommendation, feel free to merge or delete this thread accordingly.

I'm writing this to let you know of ways I help to conserve power in ways that well known. If you guys have other conservation ideas and tips, feel free to add them.

-Powerstrips are a great way to control devices that "leach power." Many of today's electronics do not "turn off" completely. They actually remain in a stand-by mode. This mode still draws power. Unlike older devices that "turned off" your supposedly "turned off" flat panel TV is still constantly drawing a charge even though you pressed the power button. While the power consumed by stand-by devices is minimal, multiply this effect by dozens of devices within a house. And then multiply that by hundreds of thousands of houses/apartments! A power strip can save you electricity. In general, it is ok to fully "turn off" stand-by devices. Playstations, Xboxes, Wii's, flat panel TV's, newer stereo systems, etc. All of these devices can be safely cut off completely. The easiest way is to plug all these devices into a power strip. Make the strip easy to get to. When you're done for the night, simply click the powerstrip off. In the morning, click it back on. Your flat panel TV may take a couple extra seconds to warm-up, but you won't be wasting power.

-Set lights on timers. Instead of leaving lamps on all night, set a timer to turn them off an hour or so after you retire. The same hold's true for outdoor lighting.

-A set of solar driveway lights make your home more secure at night, and they turn off after a certain time or when their battery is drained. They recharge when it's sunny out. No timers required, either!

-Most newer dryer's use an automatic sensor to turn off the heat when your clothes are dry. The drum may still rotate if the timer isn't complete. But the heater element won't run if the sensor indicates your clothes are dry. If your dryer is an older model that doesn't have this feature, instead of using the "more dry" setting of a cycle, cimple use the timer. Set it for specific time and try to be around when the timer dings. Check the clothes and if they are still damp, you can use the timer cycle again to complete drying them. The "More dry" setting sometimes causes the dryer to run the heater element far more than necessary. To save money on electricity, try and run the dryer in the later evening before bed, or overnite. Energy rates tends to drop at night.

-Newer lighting technology allows room lights to turn off when no one is in a room, or someone leaves a room for more than a set period of time. This is great for conserving power, but comes with an upfront cost. Like solar panels, you pay up front, but you save over the life of the technology.

-Almost all bulbs these days are halogen or high-efficiency long-life non-incandescent bulbs. Make the switch if you haven't done so, The newer bulbs are longer lasting, burn cooler and are brighter as well.

-Take advantage of natural lighting by opening shades and drapes to let sunlight in. After all, sunlight is free.

-The debate about keeping your computer turned on 24/7 still rages. While power consumption for the actual computer hardware within the computer cabinet is negligible, your monitor and speakers will suck up the most power. If you still have an old CRT monitor, DEFINITELY turn it OFF when you are not using it. Press the power button to turn it off. This alone will significantly cut the power usage of the computer. Speakers can be turned off as well. A newer flat-panel monitor sucks up far less power than an old CRT, but you can still garner savings by turning it off as well. The "low-power" modes of CRT and flat-panel monitors don't save you nearly as much as when you simply turn them off.

-AC Adapters still draw power even if the device they are plugged into is removed from the charger. If you're too lazy (like me) to remove AC Adapters from the wall plug, consider using a power strip. Plug all your adapters into the strip and then you can turn the strip on and off as needed. This is the same principle as mentioned in the first point.

While most of these methods save what you may think are small amounts of electricity, think about the power of numbers. If you save just 10 watts a day in your house, imagine if 100 houses save 10 watts. Or collectively, one million houses or apartments. That's 10 million watts, or 10 megawatts. Doesn't sound like much? 1 megawatt is enough power to run 600 average homes for 4 months straight.