Computers are becoming a part of everyday life and as more and more people begin to have multiple computers in their homes it’s a good idea to be concious of how much energy they are consuming.Here are a few things you can do to reduce the amount of energy your computer uses.

• Turn on the power management features. Virtually all computers today have the ability to switch into low-power modes automatically when they’re idle; very few computers have this capability enabled! Here’s how to do it on computers running Windows XP.

• Turn off your monitor and computer when you’re not using them

• Turn down the brightness on your monitor

• Make sure your next computer meets the efficiency standards of Climate Savers Computing (an efficient computer uses up to 50% less energy than a conventional one)

• To find the most efficient PCs available today, look for the words “EnergyStar 4.0 compliant.”

via: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html