The PC's Dirty Little Secret: It Wastes Power Shamelessly

By David LaGesse
U.S. News & World Report

Though it is the smartest device in the house, the desktop computer has been dumb when it comes to conserving energy. It's as if every household has a big, gas-guzzling vehicle (or two) in its driveway, all with engines racing. Most people have more computer than they need, says Bruce Nordman, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "It's like we're all driving sport utility computers."

And those hulking, desktop PCs gulp power because they've traditionally been shipped with their throttle stuck wide open. Of course, the energy wasted is more that of a big light bulb than an SUV. But if desktop PCs glowed like their equivalent 150-watt bulb, we'd think to dim them or even switch them off. They don't glow, and few PC owners bother to automatically power them down.

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