The Green Geek

Today is the first ever Blog Action Day. Thousands of bloggers from all over the world are helping out by writing about their choice of environmental issues.

It’s so easy these days to lower your energy consumption, and your electric bill, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t do it. We’ve only changed a few things over the last few years, but these changes have had a dramatic affect on our electric bill.

First, we replaced an old AC unit with a new, energy efficient one. We also replaced almost all of our regular light bulbs with CFL bulbs and we installing a programmable thermostat. These changes cut our bill by almost 50%.

Here are a few more things every computer user can do:

1. Ditch your screen saver. How much time does your computer spend displaying some crazy graphics on the monitor with no one even looking at it? Instead of displaying a screen saver, set your computer to turn the monitor off when it’s not being used.
2. Enable sleep or hibernation. Most computers take just a few seconds to wake from sleep. A computer in sleep mode uses a lot less energy. It’s worth a few seconds of your time.
3. Turn off your computer. This is an endless debate and I’ve personally argued on both sides of it. Some people say turning your computer off and on every day wears out the power supply faster. I used to say the same thing. Even if it does wear out the power supply faster, the energy savings will more than make up for it.

I hope you’ll take this opportunity to do your part to help the environment. Make a few small changes in your life to ensure the future well being of our planet. Don’t forget to check out the Blog Action Day website to learn more.