Technofriends

Edison is a freely available, nice and small Windows utility which helps you adjust the power settings and schemes for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Edison was developed by Verdiem, a company that has helped enterprises the world over reduce energy waste from IT devices. Now, Verdiem has brought Edison into home computing.

Essentially, you tell Edison about the inactivity time it needs to wait before switching the power scheme of your computer or laptop. When the power scheme of your computer is switched your computer’s hard disk, monitor and CPU all go into lower power consumption or power saving mode thereby saving energy and reducing any sort of emissions.

Following are the features available with Edison

1.) Edison allows you to set your schedule, that is, you can tell Edison when you use your computer most.

2.) Edison allows you to save a little or a lot, you can do this by using the Edison efficiency slider to choose the level of energy savings you want to achieve.

3.) Edison also allows you to see your savings. Based on the scheme and the settings chosen by you, Edison will calculate your estimated savings.

In order to get started with Edison, follow the steps below

1.) Download Edison by clicking here. Download appropriate Edison version based on whether you use Windows XP or Windows Vista.

2.) You will be required to activate the software by submitting your email address and clicking on the links sent.

3.) Next, when Edison is activated, you can set your work schedule and also how much you wish to save during work hours and non-work hours. This is done through the various tabs present in Edison.

4.) In the Estimated Annual Savings box, you will see a link to the cost of energy per kilowatt-hour (kWh). You can click on this price to change it. The national average per kWh rate for United States, is currently 8.9 cents. You can look up the local rate for your region online or by looking at your power bill. In order for your annual savings to be accurate, you must update this with the local cost of energy.

You must note, In order for Edison to enable you to save energy, it must communicate anonymous information to Verdiem about the computer on which it is installed, including the computer’s age, make, model, and some of the components that it runs. This information allows Verdiem to communicate back to Edison what the energy savings potential could be. Edison uses this information to help ensure that you get accurate reports and savings projections. I would suggest you also go through the Privacy policy of the company. I went through it and there is nothing to worry about.

I also suggest that you read my previous post [Green Computing] 3 Ways To Go Green With Your Computing Habits which talks about three computing habits which can help you contribute to the fight against climate change in a small yet effective way ( when done by masses). I also strongly recommend, when printing web pages, to strip off unnecessary portions, i use PrintWhatYouLike for that, you can read about that in my post [Green Computing] Print What You Like.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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