To shut down, or not to shut down

To shut down the computer at night, or not to shut down at night, that is the question for today!

A few folks have been challenging me on the April 28th action item, "Shut down your computer tonight before you go to bed." Isn't it true, they said, that it uses up more energy to boot up a computer than to leave it running in "sleep" mode?

That got me thinking...maybe it is better to leave the computer humming all night than to give it that big jolt of a wake-up call in the morning. I'm pretty sure the monitor should be shut off, or at least put in sleep mode. And what about those plugged-in cell phone chargers when the cell phone is in your pocket? Do I really have to unplug the charger from the wall?

To answer these burning questions, I turned to the tech guy at my office, Jake, who truly knows everything there is to know about all things technology. Here was his response, boiled down to a set of simple rules that I will try to live by:

1) Desktops are better left ON at night to save energy
2) Monitors should be turned OFF at night
3) Printers at home should be turned OFF at night
4) Laptops should be turned OFF at night
5) When turning a laptop ON, power up with the BATTERY, then plug it in.
6) Turn OFF external speakers when you are not using them
7) UNPLUG your cellphone chargers when you are not using them
8) Don't print unless you NEED to, and then use RECYCLED paper!

Wow, what a list. It really makes things pretty simple. I'd love to know if any of you out there disagree with any of his recommendations, but they all seem pretty reasonable to me.

On the printing front, we've been doing a neat thing at home for several years. You know how some printers at the office will print out a cover page with each document that shows who the owner of the document is? And you know how that is a huge waste of paper? Well, both Jon and I (and our co-workers) create separate piles of those cover sheets, and then folks take them home to re-use as printer paper. We save lots of money and trees by re-using this paper for our personal printing at home. You could also use that paper for scratch pads, if you cut it into 1/2 or 1/4 size sheets.

Just a friendly little tip to save a few trees!

OK, enough preaching for today. Tomorrow should be an easy one for me -- turning off the faucet while brushing my teeth. I wonder how much water we all waste without even realizing it...