Go Green With Your Computer Monitor

As far as your computer is concerned, it isn’t the largest energy hog in your house. It is a medium power drain overall using an average of 400 kilowatt-hours a year. As far as costs go, that’s only $35 on your yearly bill. However, when looked at as carbon-dioxide emissions it is equal to 530 pounds, the same as what your clothes washer produces. Looked at another way, it is less than one tenth of what your water heater creates, or 20 times the amount your DVD player produces. In brief, it’s a medium power consumer and carbon emitter.

Monitor Power Usage

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So, why concern ourselves with the efficiency of a computer monitor? It’s because computer monitors account for over 50 percent of the energy consumed while on the computer. Moreover, even when not in use it continues to draw power; as long as it is on, the monitor is using a significant amount of wattage.

Herein lies the biggest advantage to an Energy Star-certified, high-efficiency monitor over the regular power draining models. They draw considerably less power when asleep, or off. And the sleep mode triggers automatically following a predetermined period of inactivity.

How to Go Green with your Monitor

If you’re serious about cutting your monitor’s carbon footprint, the quickest and most effective step to take is to upgrade to an Energy Star monitor. There are thousands you can select from that have these energy-saving qualities. So, if that is the case, how do you know which one is the most effective?

Look at the top five energy-saving monitors:

• Samsung SyncMaster 305T: This Samsung monitor is huge at 30 inches. Generally monitors of this size are used by designers. Now they can use a screen that uses a smaller amount of electricity while in active mode, only 65.5 watts. While in sleep mode it uses a modest 0.93 watts of electricity and when off consumes a mere 0.71 watts.
• Philips 150S7: General use computers used at home are typically 15 to 22 inches in size. The Philips 150S7 15-inch monitor consumes less energy in active mode than almost any other monitor available — a meager 12.8 watts. That is practically unheard of. When asleep or off it consumes only 0.8 watts.
• Lenovo D185 Wide: This 18.5-inch screen is ideal for watching movies in widescreen format. And consuming only 13.8 watts while active you can enjoy both your movie knowing that your monitor is consuming very little energy. In sleep mode it requires a mere 0.44 watts and when asleep only 0.33.
• eMachines E17T6W: This 17-inch widescreen monitor has 1440×900 resolution with an 8-millisecond response time making it ideal for both games and movies. It draws only 16.4 watts while in use, 0.68 when in sleep mode and 0.63 when shut off.
• Dell G2210t: This final monitor has perhaps the best usage of energy for its size. It’s 22-inches has a terrific active mode energy usage of only 22 watts, but even better when asleep or off: only 0.12 watts! These numbers are superior to most small monitors.

Do your part for the environment by purchasing an Energy Star monitor. There are plenty to chosoe from in a variety of sizes and price ranges.