Linda posted on September 03, 2008 14:58
If you don't want to turn your computer off, but you would like to reduce the amount of energy it uses, then check out Edison from Verdiem .
Edison is a free software product available to consumers that lets you actively control your PC's energy consumption. It is easy to download and install, and once you have it installed, it is easy to see how much money you can save with various power settings.
One of the big advantages of Edison over the standard Windows power settings is that you can configure the power settings differently for working and non-working hours. During non-working hours, you can set the software to turn off your monitor and hard drives after just a few minutes, but after a much longer time period during working hours. And you get to define just when those working hours are!
To see how much you will be able to save with various settings, you will need to grab a recent electric bill and enter the actual cost of your electricity. Once that is done, easy to use slider bars show you just how big your savings will be for various settings.
I've written quite a bit lately about reducing energy consumption at the desktop level. Let me know - is this an issue that you are interested in?