Digital Home Thoughts: It's Easy Being Green

"Have you ever thought about how much it cost to run your PC -- the one you're using to read this article? What does it cost to play games, surf the Internet, or download files? It all costs money -- money that you, your parents, or whoever is in charge of the monthly electricity will have to pay. Those of you in charge of paying this bill will surely be interested in keeping costs down, which is why you might want to pay a little more attention to what sort of hardware you are using in your computer."

Take the time (and energy!) to read this article. It presents a great run-down of typical power consumption in two areas of the United States and Germany, and made me check my own local utility to compare. I have up to five computers (four laptops and a desktop server) in my household, in addition to my other wireless gadgets. I took the time to setup all of them - except the desktop - to sleep after an hour of non-use. The desktop server just does not wake well if there is a file request, but there are upcoming improvements in that area. I think one way manufacturers can start is to remove the "power on" functionality from remotes. I've read elsewhere that this consumes a huge amount of power over a year. So, how do you manage your power, if at all?