GreenEnergyForEarth.com – Alternative Energy News and Green Products

Nov 27, 2008 – If you are reading this you have a PC [Personal Computer] even though it might be a Mac. Do you leave it on overnight? In a new ad that IBM is running, it shows oil barrels lying on their sides radiating out from a central upright oil barrel and it states, “Depicts 11.6 million barrels of oil, the amount of energy that can be wasted each year by PCs left on overnight.” It doesn’t state if that is from the USA or worldwide. Nevertheless, either way that is a lot of oil being wasted. Do you leave your monitor on also? Is your monitor an LCD [feel the back of it; it’s warm] or, hopefully not, a CRT that uses even more electricity? OK, when do you back up your hard drive [you do back up your hard drive!] if your PC is not on at night? Over the years I have had 4 hard drives crater. Once should teach you to make backups, which I do each night automatically onto an extra internal HD and I emphatically recommend that you do the same as HD prices are so low. [I also backup my laptop onto a USB HD.] Thank goodness one does not need to copy your files manually onto 3.5” disks anymore. I do shut off my monitor, but I confess that I do leave the PC on at night so that a hard drive backup is made. Please comment with your methods to both backup automatically and use less energy. Check back for comments from others. The individual who, by December 31, provides the best solution for achieving less energy use while maintaining a protocol for nightly backup will receive a 3-pack of compact fluorescent bulbs [CFLs]. My decision [objective and/or subjective] as to the winner is final.

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