USE LESS POWER AND CUT YOUR BILLS
With energy prices soaring, it’s more important than ever to minimise your power usage. Nik Rawlinson explains how Windows and smart devices can help
Adjust Windows’ energy-saving settings
Your screen, which relies on a backlight, is one of the most energy-intensive components in your whole set-up, so it’s worth putting it to sleep when you’re not at your computer. Press Windows key+i to open Settings then, in Windows 11, click System followed by ‘Battery & power’. Now click ‘Sleep and screen’ to reveal the settings you need to tweak.
If you’re using a laptop, you’ll see separate settings for battery and mains power. If you’re using a desktop PC without an internal battery, the battery settings won’t be shown.
In Windows 10, open Settings and click System followed by ‘Power & sleep’, then use the two dropdown menus below Screen to specify when the display should switch off when on battery power ( 1 in our screenshot above) or when plugged in 2 , and the menus under Sleep ( 3 and
4 ) to specify how long it should wait before powering down if not being used. The shorter the time you choose, the less energy you’ll use overall.
Make sure the settings for going to sleep and turning off your screen are the same: there’s no point keeping your computer awake when it isn’t being used.
Check which programs use the most energy
Your choice of programs and how you use them affects your power consumption.
You can see how much power each uses in Task Manager: open it by pressing Ctrl+alt+esc, or right-clicking your taskbar and selecting it. Look at the far-right column for each program’s power consumption. In our screenshot below, Brave’s consumption is High because we’re using it to play a full-screen video. When we moved the video back into Youtube’s interface, power consumption dropped to Low and only very occasionally became Moderate.
Monitor how much energy each device uses
It’s instructive to know how much power each piece of software uses, but it won’t save you anywhere near as much money as tracking how much energy your devices use. To do this accurately (within an estimated margin of error of just 0.5 per cent), you need a dedicated electricityusage monitor.
One of the best monitors is this Mecheer model (£19.99 from www.snipca.com/41786, pictured above right), which has seven modes showing different aspects of energy use. For example, mode 1 shows the length of time power has been used, the amount of wattage used, and how much it has cost. Our photo shows mode 3, which displays the duration at the top, voltage (235.8) in the middle, and the frequency (50Hz) at the bottom.
Mode 2 may be the most useful way to calculate energy costs because it shows you the total kilowatts-per-hour (KWH) used, which the monitor calls ‘cumulative electrical quantity’. You can then enter this into the electricity-use calculator at www.snipca.com/41787 to give you the amount it’s costing you.
Control your energy using smart plugs
Many modern TV sets don’t have off switches – the best they offer is standby mode. It’s not only TVS, either. From microwave ovens to Hi-fis, our homes are filled with gadgets that you can’t switch off properly. While this is convenient, it’s also wasteful. According to the Energy Savings Trust, these always-on devices could be costing you £55 a year in wasted energy (see www.snipca.com/41712).
You can fix this by turning devices off at the socket, which is much more easily done using smart plugs. These connect wirelessly to your home network, so you can switch them all on or off using an app, or a smart speaker.
We recommend Tp-link’s smart plugs (£10 each from www.snipca.com/41743), and multi-socket power strips with three sockets and two USB ports (£25 from www.snipca.com/41748, pictured below left). Both can be controlled from your phone or tablet using the Kasa Smart app for Android (www.snipca.com/41710) and IOS (www.snipca.com/41711).
Usefully, the app lets you organise your plugs into groups so you can control several simultaneously, and even adjust their on/off times to coincide with sunset and sunrise. This latter function is particularly useful if you have lamps plugged into sockets and you only want them to come on when it gets dark outside.
Switch to a Tv-streaming stick
If you’re using a set-top box to stream TV and your TV set has a USB port, you might want to consider switching to a streaming stick, like the Amazon Fire TV (from £30 at www.snipca.com/41746) or Chromecast with Google TV (£60 from www.snipca.com/41705). Connecting them to the television’s HDMI port but powering them from its USB port means that when you switch off your TV using a smart plug, they are switched off at the same time. As a result, they will cost less to run than a set-top box left on standby.
For a device that you switch on and off at the same time every day – perhaps a router or printer – consider buying a mechanical timer for the socket, which are cheaper than smart plugs. You can pick up a pack of three for just £15 (www. snipca.com/41747).
Save with smart heating
Smart heating systems aren’t only convenient: they can also be money savers. A system like Hive from British Gas owner Centrica lets you pair a thermostat, hub and (optionally) a series of radiator valves to your router. Once connected, they can each be controlled via an online account at www.hivehome. com, or via apps for Android (www. snipca.com/41694) and IOS (www. snipca.com/41695).
It costs a bit to get set up, with valves costing £54 each (there are discounts if you buy a multi-pack), and the hub and thermostat combination starting at £119. You’ll also need to pay for installation, but you shouldn’t have to change your boiler unless you have a heat pump or solid fuel system (visit www.snipca.com/41696 and scroll down to the ‘Frequently asked questions’ header for a list of incompatible systems).
In return, Hive claims you could save £110 a year, which means that, if you don’t buy any valves, you should recoup your investment in a little under 14 months. Because your phone will know when you take it out of the house, the Hive app can warn you if you’ve left the heating on. When it spots you heading back home, if your house is below your preferred temperature (see screenshot above), it can notify you again, so you can switch it back on. This saves you having to guess when setting the thermostat and reduces the likelihood you’ll burn energy you could have saved.
Hive isn’t the only option. Google’s Nest Thermostat (www.snipca.com/41697) costs £219 and, Google claims, can recoup its cost in two years. It does this by learning your preferences and how your heating system works, so you can make logical adjustments to minimise waste.