I am celebrating 2 1/2 years of boycotting gasoline and having a car. Only got rides a few times other than carpooling or taking the bus. The main reason is for my health. The second reason is to save money on things like car insurance, repairs, and drive time. Among many other reasons.
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Energy Saving devices list from ASE.org
Why do tablets use less energy than older desktop and laptop computers?
They have no moving parts such as fans, or spinning discs (other than the user moving the entire device). Everything is closer together. They have fewer parts.
They use small energy efficient displays
They also create less heat.
If you continue to use a desktop or laptop computer you can plug the tablet or smart phone into a USB port to trickle charge after you have done the 1st full charge with your charger.
If you remember to unplug the charger, it uses dramatically less energy. The charger since it is converting AC power to DC power, if left plugged in takes more power than the tablet, or smart phone it powers.
Motion sensor power strip:
Motion sensor power allows device to turn off when you aren’t in the room.
It has some outlets that stay on all the time (you would probably plug your desktop tower and router/modem into these ports)
It has some that are on only when someone is in the room: you would plug your monitor, lamps, speakers, TVs, and chargers (for phones, laptops, and tablets) into these ports.
oLED TVs/monitors
use less electricity and heat
read about other devices at
Category: energy efficiency
1. Solar Keyboard from Logitech.
- I have been using the Windows version of the solar Logitech keyboard. I kept using wired keyboards because I didn’t like changing batteries. This solves that problem, and removes some cable clutter.
- I now also have the mac version for my Macintosh.
2. Wireless touchpad from Logitech
- It is rechargeable by USB cable, and otherwise wireless and uses the same wireless adapter as my keyboard.
- Removes cable clutter. A little bit less hard on my wrist and gets rid of the laser.
- There is both a Mac version and a Windows version with multitouch (it has basic functions in Linux and basic functions if you used the Windows for mac or vice versa).
3. Solid State Drive
- A solid state drive can increase the speed of computer
SATA Solid State Drive
dramatically. - I have installed SSDs on 3 my computers and a customer’s computer.
- It also increases energy efficiency and reduces heat
- They come from multiple manufacturers. Typically from companies that make memory and flash drives.
- I had to clean up unneeded program files and duplicate files before installing.
- I used disc duplication /imaging software that came with one of the drives.
- Also, I was able to mount it to the desktop computers since it came with an adapter mount even though they were both made for laptops.
- For my Macintosh computers I used Time Machine (Apple Macintosh’s automatic local backup program to external drive) to do the restore to the new drive.
- A 480 GB drive is the same as a 512 GB drive. (the 512 GB drive uses a different definition of GB)
When Electricity first started DC power (direct current) was used. Things were switched to AC (alternating current) power to make things safer. But now more and more devices run on DC power even if they are plugged into an AC outlet.
I believe that buildings need to start going away from universal 110 -120 volt ac power (or whatever the standard is for the country) and switch to low voltage DC power for at least a major part of the building (not for the entire building).
Why? Many electronics as mentioned before use DC power, and to do that every device plugged in to the wall uses a Power Supply unit to convert it into DC power. These units can fail, and can go missing. The PSU can be in a computer or in one of those boxes you see on power chords or phone chargers, or built in to the electronic.
It would allow for more efficient streamlined use of solar power or other renewable and off the grid energy sources.
LED lights run well on DC power. Mobile phones tablets and many other devices could plug right into the wall without a special psu box, and the USB port (or whatever technology) wouldn’t need a conversion to DC either. The great thing about most mobile phones and tablets, and many other devices is they are already standardized to the USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface and many of the newer technologies allow for backwards compatibility to USB.
To do this some devices would need to be changed: desktop computers could have PSU removed. Laptops would have to have a new standardized plug (and possibly new standardized voltages). Besides PSUs draining energy, they are prone to failure, and can hold a dangerous electric charge that can be a shock hazard and in rare cases fire hazard.
Wall plugs would have to change, it could be USB, or something compatible. (I like the lightning plug that is on the phone side of the Apple iPhone since it’s less likely to break or get dirty)
One of the main reasons solar power or any other power sources aren’t efficient as it can be is because of all the unnecessary (in today’s world) conversions (and transporting). Renewable sources work best when everything they power is energy efficient.
I think these concepts would work well on new buildings, buildings doing a major renovation, and buildings that are in remote locations where electricity is hard to get or unreliable.
And it doesn’t need to be done for a whole building or all electronics, it can be done for just some of the electronics to start.
Another concept during the day similar to a sky light, you could use fiber optics to use natural lighting from sun without any conversions (maybe some mirrors to capture and UV filter) no photovoltaic cells or electricity needed and it can be done on multiple floors and without ruining insulation (R Values) and without ruining fire barriers. Night time solar powered battery LED lighting could be used with the fiber optics.
Nathan Steffenson Published July 20 2014
Disclaimer: This is currently just a concept. I’m not an electrician and have no prototype. Although not all working together as a system, many of these components exist and are readily available. I haven’t done thorough research for prior art.
Here are some general power saving tips (many that you may already know)
- Unplug USB Devices when not using them (make sure to eject/remove properly if it stores data)
- Unplug charges and other devices when turned off and not being used from electric outlet.
- Have your monitor turn off automatically when computer is not in use.
- Have your computer go to sleep.
- Automatically have your computer turn off and on at a certain time if the computer is not used during certain hours.
- These settings are in the control panel in windows usually under power options
- These settings are in the system preferences in Mac OS X under energy saver
- Usually when people ask if they should power their computer off, I say they can but only at night or the time they are not using it. The computer should only be powered on once per day at the most. It is OK to do a soft restart to clear the memory and run start up scripts. Remember to shut down properly if possible. Sometimes people will leave their computer on at night or off hours to do anti-virus/anti-malware scans, updates, backups, and run other utilities.
- Hopefully you aren’t printing all the time unless printing is necessary part of your business. Unless you print all the time printers are usually a good thing to leave off, or turn off during off hours if there are no printing jobs. Or eliminate having a printer all together.
- Use energy efficient equipment.