How many of us are aware of the inbuilt power saving features on our PCs? And how many of us use them? EcoStreet forum member Solomon does, and he can tell us how to do it too.
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Your PC has several built in power modes, each of which will turn off the PC/monitor/hard drives etc at various times. You can set up a power scheme (or several) of your own, or customise existing ones to suit your own needs. All Windows operating systems since Windows 95 have these power schemes, that you can use to save energy and money. This article is aimed at Windows XP users, but other versions of Windows should be very similar.
To begin setting them up, first decide how you use your PC. There’s little point setting up a power scheme that will annoy you because it turns your monitor off constantly, but there’s also little point setting up a scheme that waits for 4 hours before turning it off. Remember that these schemes are not set in stone, and they are so easy to edit, so that it pays to experiment a bit.
You will find the Power Schemes in the Control Panel. This is accessible from the Start Menu, or Windows Explorer. In there, look for the icon titled “Power Options”. Please note that this can sometimes be found under “Performance and Maintenance”.
When this is open, you will see a Window with 4 tabs – “Power Schemes”, “Advanced”, “Hibernate” and “UPS”.
Power schemes is selected automatically.
You will see a drop-down box with the option “Home/Office Desk”. Several other options are available, including “Minimal Power Management”, “Presentation”, “Max Battery”, etc. Each option is a suggested power scheme for each type of usage – a laptop user would select “Max Battery”, for example. If you select a different scheme, you’ll see the settings change. If you wish, you can select one of these schemes that suits you, click apply, then OK, and your PC will use the new settings.
However, most of the default Windows settings are rather tame, so you can set the timings yourself.
“Turn off monitor” – my suggestion: 5 minutes.
This puts your monitor into standby, which uses less power than being fully on, but it still uses a lot, so remember to turn it off when not in use. Your monitor accounts for about 1/3 of the electricity your PC uses.
“Turn off hard disks” – my suggestion: 10 minutes.
Your hard drive spins at about 54,000 rpm. Most of the time, this is totally unecessary. This setting stops your hard drive from spinning, but allows it to spin up again as soon as necessary.
“System standby” – my suggestion: 15 minutes.
This setting turns off everything in your PC that can be safely turned off. It does take a few seconds to “warm up” from standby, but it’s not an excessive amount.
Now click on the Advanced tab.
“Always show the icon on the taskbar” – leave this disabled unless you change the Power Options regularly (something you probably wont do once you find your most suitable settings).
“Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby” – I leave this disabled. Only I use this PC, and if I’m going to be leaving it for any length of time, I ensure that anything sensetive, like my internet banking, is closed down. You might find it useful. I personally do not.
“When I press the power button on my computer” – this is the button you use to turn the PC on with. Using this setting, you can have a “1 hit” option for putting your PC into standby, etc. Choose an option that suits you. I have this set to Standby. I can press the button and walk away from the PC, without having to wait for it to go into standby.
“When I press the sleep button on my computer” – few PC’s these days have a sleep button, but if yours does, you can choose another option similar to the previous one here.
Click on the Hibernation tab.
Hibernation is a special form of power saving. It’s similar to the concept of saving your Word document, but this time it works on the whole computer. Everything in memory gets saved, then the PC turns off. When you turn the PC back on, it reverts to the state it was in right before it went into hibernation – your Excel spreadsheet will be open, your song will continue playing from the part it stopped at, etc. This is great if you spend a lot of time working on a document, or usually have several programmes running, as you can turn the PC off completely, and have it open up exactly how it was. To activate Hibernation, put a tick in the checkbox.
Now go back to the “Power Schemes” tab. You’ll see another option underneath “System standby” called “System Hibernates”. This will put your PC into Hibernation according to the timescale you set it to.
It’s best to play about with the settings and get into a system that you feel comfortable with. Please remember, though, that screensavers are a waste of money and energy. If you have time to allow a screensaver to appear on your screen, then you have time to turn that screen off.