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Computers and home office equipment have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 76% of Californians lived in a household with Internet access in 2009, up from 55% in 2001. The rapid development of new technology continues to decrease the costs of electronics. Many families now have multiple computers in their homes, and round out their home office with printers, fax machines, tablets, and other office electronics. Unfortunately, retailers and manufacturers don't readily advertise electronic energy consumption beyond the ENERGY STAR® label, and most computers are sold without the power management settings enabled. Saving energy in your home office is a combination of buying efficient products, using the energy-saving device settings, and using your equipment efficiently.
Manufacturers and retailers highlight the speed, features and capabilities of electronic products, rather than their energy efficiency. The ENERGY STAR label is a good indicator of products with power management features, yet it's difficult to find more information about the energy use of computers at most retail stores. A good online resource for energy-efficiency information is CNET. The website has an extensive review of most major computer equipment, and includes power use information in its “Juice Box” section, as well as a yearly estimated cost to run the computer. CNET also compares the energy use of a computer against other products in its category (basic, gaming, home theater, etc.). However, it's crucial to recognize that the amount of energy your home office equipment uses is mostly determined by use habits.
Laptops offer energy savings of up to 50% over desktops, although they're more expensive than desktops with comparable specs. The laptop market has probably seen the most innovations in energy efficiency, due to their popularity and portability.
Energy efficiency in laptops has been enhanced by new features such as low-powered central processing units (CPUs) and solid-state hard drives. Low powered CPUs save energy for low-end and netbook systems. The thermal design power (TDP) is a metric describing the amount of heat that's wasted by the cooling system, and developers have focused on decreasing TDP in order to increase the efficiency of low powered CPUs. Solid-state hard drives are another component that may save energy. Unlike traditional hard drives, solid-state models don't have any moving parts, which helps keep down heat that triggers the fans to run. CNET has found that although these hard drives spend significantly more time in lower power state, they don't significantly increase battery life. However, solid-state hard drives cost more than traditional hard drives.
Another benefit of laptops is that they use liquid crystal display (LCD) screens as the standard. LCD screens are much more efficient than traditional desktop and television cathode ray tube screens. The newest technology available is light-emitting diode (LED) backlit screens. Although more expensive and only available on a few models so far, LED backlit screens can be much brighter while using less energy than LCD screens.
The range of desktop computers available is as diverse as the tasks we use them for. The energy consumption is highly varied, from budget desktops to high-performing gaming systems. If you mostly run a few key programs which require little power and speed (such as internet-based tasks), a nettop may be a good option. These usually cost less, take up much less space, and with low-powered CPUs, use less energy than standard-sized desktops.
Hybrid graphics are another component that can help save energy. These models can split graphic demands between a graphics chip and an integrated low-power graphics processing unit, so less demanding tasks will not consume as much energy using the higher performing, less efficient graphics card. While hybrid graphics may be more efficient, they're also more expensive and not upgradable, which may or may not be an issue depending on how you use your desktop. Like laptops, there are desktop models which feature solid-state hard drives. Again, these models use less energy, but they are currently still more expensive than traditional spinning-platter hard drives.
About 25% of a computer’s power use is consumed by the monitor. Monitor technology development has closely shadowed that of televisions. Older cathode ray tube monitors, the large monitors with curved glass screens, use 57% more power and take up much more space than flat LCD screens. They also use more energy in sleep mode. While LED LCD screens are more expensive, they have a higher image quality and can be even thinner than cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) LCD screens.
From scanning, to printing, to faxing and copying, there are more ways than ever to communicate ideas and images from the home office. Fortunately, multifunctional devices that can perform all of these functions have become widely available on the market. While saving space and money, these devices also use much less energy while both on and in sleep mode than a collection of separate devices. If you must have a separate printer, inkjet printers use 60% less energy than laser printers. If you must have the higher quality prints of laser printers, then a low-speed model will use less than half the energy of a high-speed model. Similarly, low-speed multifunctional devices save energy over high-speed models.
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