How do I cut my electricity bills?
QI’ve taken your mag since the days when you once told a reader that you didn’t cover Apple devices because these products had their own mag. That’s not a dig but a timestamp – I’ve been with you a long time! I can’t recall you ever advising whether it would takes less electricity to use a laptop and a PC at the same time or two monitors. My memory is now poor, so switching virtual desktops doesn’t work for me, as I’ve forgotten the information from the first before I’ve copied it to the second. I often need three documents open at the same time. Please help as my green electricity is turning my bank account red. Pete Daniels
AWe're not sure of the precise nature of your current setup, but we’ll attempt to offer some help. We think that you’re running one desktop computer and one monitor, and are making use of the multiple-desktops feature in Windows as an approximation of having two computers. We also think you’re wondering whether it’d be cheaper to add either a second monitor or a laptop.
If we’re right then the answer is fairly straightforward. Step back and think about it and, at the moment, you’re running one computer and one monitor. If you add a second display, you’ll be running one computer and two monitors – so that’s three things using electricity. However, if you were to keep your current setup but add a laptop then, conceptually, you’ll have four things using power: the desktop and its monitor and the laptop and its screen.
Okay, so the laptop is technically just one device, but, practically speaking, it’s a computer and a screen – just like your current desktop PC and screen.
All of this is complicated by how much power each device uses, which can vary considerably depending on any number of variables. However, typically, screens draw less power than the PC driving them (be it a desktop or laptop), so one computer and two monitors is likely to consume less power than two computers each with its own screen.
Moreover, laptops generally use less power overall than a PC – so a single laptop connected to an external monitor is likely to use less power than a PC connected to two monitors.
Finally, for more advice on reducing your power usage (and therefore your electricity bills), see pages 60-61 in Issue 631.