Smart-Watt

…IP-enabled power, temperature, and humidity data collection device a while back. I just saw it mentioned in a Green Data Center Blog item titled: Power Monitoring Equipment Review – Smart-Watt and a visit to Microsoft.

Suggestion note: You might want to consider safely wiping the data or even removing the hard drive from your PC or Mac before recycling it.

How Can I Make My Computer Efficient?

…and found myself thinking that while the article was factually correct (though I’m not sure I agree with everything there), it did not go far enough. So, here’s some additional tips of my own.

• While sleep mode obviously uses less power than leaving the computer on, it still uses power. If you will be away for a while and use either a Windows or Linux box, consider using the Hibernate feature instead. This creates a snapshot of your current desktop environment (running apps) before completely shutting down. You can remove a notebook battery, shutoff a power strip, or otherwise remove power completely. It may take a bit longer on restart than suspend but there is no power used during the dormant period.
• The Ecogeek says that notebooks are configured to run more efficiently since it often runs on batteries. This is sort-of-kind-of true. First, some notebook are desktop replacements and not really power efficient. They are more of a transportable nature than a portable nature. Second, you will sometimes (often) see people crank up CPU to peak efficiency from the usually default moderate power usage mode to get more speed from their notebooks. The true battery saving low power modes on notebooks I’ve used tend to be a bit on the pokey side by design. It is ok for email and light browsing. But, the minute you need to do heavy duty writing, presentation prep, running a virtual machine, or programming and you will quickly choose to crank up the CPU processing speed and therefore energy use.
• If your notebook is connected to a UPS, consider taking out the battery out while plugged in to the wall (unless it is a MacBook which seems to be unhappy about not having its battery taken out while running). This really seems to reduce heat generation on notebooks I’ve used and probably helps increase the battery’s longevity.
• Don’t forget about connected peripherals. Does your printer have a power-saving mode? How about your external Firewire/USB hard drive? Older external drives tend to stay on when its connected host computer goes to sleep or is in hibernation. Some newer drives like the Western Digital My Book Premium Edition series go into a low-power sleep mode when idle (even when connected to a running computer).
• I haven’t tried any of the smart powerstrips myself. But, they are supposed to drop power to idle power bricks for phones and other usually dangling mobile devices.

P3 International Kill A Watt

…as a tool to monitor electricity usage for specific appliances, gadgets, etc. I have one on order from…

Amazon.com for $24.99 (free shipping, affiliate link) – P3 International Kill-A-Watt

I wonder if there is an affordable electricity monitor that stores data internally and makes available for analysis on computer via a USB data download?

About The Editor: Todd Ogasawara has been involved in various aspects of technology for many years. He has written for both print and online publications such as PC World magazine, Computer Telephony Magainze, Handheld PC Magazine, Microsoft.com, and OReillyNet.com (O’Reilly Media). He has also contributed hacks to some of the popular O’Reilly Hacks Series book: Digital Photography Hacks, Digital Video Hacks, and Yahoo! Hacks. He also wrote the PDF book Windows for Intel Macs for O’Reilly’s popular Shortcuts Series. You can find his other blogs at:

MobileViews.com Blog: Mobile Technology with an Emphasis on Microsoft Windows Mobile 

OgasaWalrus Blog: Freeware and Open Source Applications for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows