Save money by adjusting your PC's power settings

Standby mode
If Hibernate is not supported, use Standby instead. Open the Power Options box as before, but instead of picking the Hibernate tab, choose the Advanced option. You then have a choice of when you wish to enable the standby option ­ when the power button on the PC is pressed, or when the Sleep button is pressed. Pick the one you wish from the dropdown menu, click Apply and then OK. If your user account has a password you’ll need it to restart the computer from Standby mode.

Notebook users will be given additional options when they click on the Advanced tab. In particular, there’s an option to put the notebook into Standby mode if the lid is shut while the computer is running.

Aside from the monitor, one of the most power-hungry parts of any PC is the hard disk. When working the hard disk uses a motor spinning several thousand times per minute, and this in turn uses up lots of power.

However, help is at hand. Windows XP allows you to turn off your hard disk, even if the computer isn’t properly put into standby or hibernation mode. Open the Power Options tool as before, then switch to the Power Schemes tab. Here you will see the option to turn off your hard disks and a dropdown menu asking you to pick when. Choose a sensible interval ­ say 30 minutes ­ and click Apply. If Windows detects that the computer has been doing nothing for that period of time, it will stop the hard disks to save power, and again save you money.

Another key power drain is the monitor. Many of us set screensavers on our computers, but these can use up more power: monitors will often shut off if they detect that nothing is happening on screen, but a screensaver will keep them alive and using full power. If you have an LCD monitor, rather than the older CRT type, then a screensaver is unnecessary so turn it off: right-click on the desktop to bring up the display properties. Click on the Screen Saver tab and pick None from the dropdown menu. Click Apply and then OK.

In this tab there is also an option to adjust monitor power settings and save energy. To do this click Power. This will take you to the Power Options Properties. Choose the Power Schemes tab. Here you be presented with a dropdown menu with the option to tell the PC when to turn off your monitor. This can be set to intervals from one minute to five hours.

It might not seem like it but peripherals can also use up a significant amount of power. Leaving a printer on standby can use considerable energy ­ as do fax machines and scanners. So, for a simple way to save money, turn these devices off when they’re not in use.