quahappy wrote:Just noticed title of this topic.... how the heck did you suss we have more than one computer moon?!
Three laptops in my house. One is mine, another is the wife's (these two are wireless via BT homehub), and the third is the kids, locked down with parental controls, etc. Oh, and that one can only be connected via Internet dongle. Which is kept in my pocket when not used.
My wife shuts hers down every night and sometimes during the day if not using it for x hours. Mine stays on around 16-18 hours a day before switched off. No, I'm not on it all the time. I have certain websites constantly open and check when get the opportunity to act on any tasks that need my attention. I should switch it to economical mode really but find the screen dims a great deal and then difficult to see. (only because I have cataract in right eye which will be removed in July. Cataract, not the eye.)
Laptops are as well a sticky subject, laptops use way less energy than a desktop, especially my desktop. Because laptops usually don't have sufficient cooling, probably turn them off or use sleep mode, and on some newer notebooks you can control the clock freq, for instance my netbook, when I have it on battery power I have it set to run at 50% speed (this really boosts battery runtime) although it means I'm only getting 800 MHz...yeah imagine that, 800 MHz with Windows 7!
If you really want to save energy, unplug the adapter from the wall, though they don't draw as much when the laptop isn't plugged in, they can still use a considerable amount of power over a period of time, this goes the same with almost every household appliance today. The funny fact about appliances today is that most of them run on DC, though we all have AC to the wall outlet we suddenly need an adapter to change it to DC, at a cost.
Ok for those who only know AC DC as in hells bells, which I'll agree is a great rock band, but I'll explain the science behind the rock...
DC - Direct Current. Pretty easy, well they're both pretty easy, but I also said the removing a virus from a PC is also easy. Ok direct current... It only travels in one direction, example:
->->->->-> +
<-<-<-<-<- -
AC - Alternating Current. Alternating current changes direction a number of times per second. In the US, other countries use different voltages and cycles per second, use 60 Hz (cycles) at 120 V,explain voltages in a bit. Here's an example...
-<->-<->-<->-<
->-<->-<->-<->
Amazingly enough this happens 50 to 60 times per second. Ok so why alternating current instead of direct current. Surprisingly enough it's safer. If you ever were to experience an electrical shock with 120 V DC, you're probably going to die, since the charge can hold you to the wire, or throw you on your ass, however anytime you get "zapped" can make it difficult to get away. Secondly, and most importantly it travels much further than DC, that means less power stations are needed.
Volts, Amps, Watts, and Ohms...Eh why not?
Voltage is the measure of charge, think of it as terms of a river, in this case it would be the downhill slope of a river, meaning gravity is forcing the water down harder, the more voltage the more the charge wants to get out, good example...lightning...oxygen is usually a very good insulator, meaning it doesn't conduct electricity, however enough charge, electricity will travel on through. Amperes is the measure of current, this is what can stop your heart when being electrocuted, voltage by it self is a harmless unless enough actual electricity is flowing, for a river of water we could say this is the number of gallons of water that are going down the river. Watts is the measure of power, which can be figured by Amps x Volts, for instance if your TV uses 120 volts and uses 6 amps your TV consumes 720 watts, and the average kilowatt hour is 12 cents would cost you $2.07 every 24 hours of use. Lastly Ohms, ohms are resistance, all conductors have some amount of resistance, the best conductor (not including superconductors) is silver, but because silver tarnishes witch hinders this ability gold is used in its place since gold has a similar atomic structure. Resistance could be thought of the rocks and dams that are on the river restricting flow of water...
So hopefully someone can make use of all my jabbering and hopefully save money on their energy bill, a good link to read more on this:
http://www.ebtx.com/mech/ampvolt.htm