Green Thinking for the Average Joe » computers http://www.ecojoes.com Environmental news, eco-friendly experiments, and green mess Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:07:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Green Excuses to Get an LCD Screen http://www.ecojoes.com/green-excuses-to-get-an-lcd-screen/ http://www.ecojoes.com/green-excuses-to-get-an-lcd-screen/#comments Sat, 02 May 2009 16:28:01 +0000 ecojoe http://www.ecojoes.com/?p=647

Perhaps you’ve wanted one of those snazzy LCD TVs or monitors for awhile, but you haven’t quite been able to justify it. Maybe now you can.

On average, an LCD monitor will use 30% less energy than a CRT monitor. Not only will this help the environment, but it’ll save you money. How much money will an LCD screen save compared to a CRT monitor, you ask? That all depends…

LCD Energy Savings Compared to CRT

Here’s how to figure out how much an LCD screen will save you compared to a CRT screen.

  • Calculate kilowatts per year used for each monitor. Take into account that each screen uses different amounts of energy even when it’s turned off.
  • Subtract the LCD energy usage from the CRT energy usage.
  • Multiply the kilowatt difference by the cost per kilowatt in your area (9.8 cents per kw where I live).

Voila, that number is how much money you’d save if you had an LCD monitor instead of a CRT monitor. So if you do decide to get rid of your ol’ CRT, please either give it away to someone or a thrift store, or, if no one wants your hunk o’ junk, you can bring it to a recycling center.

If you want to see a detailed example of how much an LCD screen might save compared to a CRT screen, check out this here linky.

]]> http://www.ecojoes.com/green-excuses-to-get-an-lcd-screen/feed/ 2 Upgrade Shenanigans with Wordpress http://www.ecojoes.com/upgrade-shenanigans-with-wordpress/ http://www.ecojoes.com/upgrade-shenanigans-with-wordpress/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:59:13 +0000 ecojoe http://www.ecojoes.com/?p=200
Warning: Boring technical non-green mess
I learned an important lesson last night.  I’d been putting off upgrading Wordpress for a few weeks, since I worried about losing all the articles and pictures I’ve ever put on this here site.  But finally, last night I bit the bullet and began the arduous task of backing up the database and upgrading all this mess.  By an amazing coincidence, I chose the absolute wrong time to do this, and learned this lesson…

Check Your Host’s Status

I started at about midnight, so by one o’ clock I had backed up the good ol’ database and deleted some important parts of Wordpress.  I was just beginning to put in the new Wordpress mess, when everything stopped.  So’s I head over to check Dreamhost’s status, and what do you know, everything is gonna be down for the next couple of hours. Whups.

So at that point there was nothing to do but wait ’til today to fix it. Luckily, it looks like everything is shipshape.  Next time, I will make sure to check if my host’s service will be going down right in the middle of upgrading Wordpress.

]]> http://www.ecojoes.com/upgrade-shenanigans-with-wordpress/feed/ 4 The Day I Bravely Rescued a CRT Monitor http://www.ecojoes.com/i-saved-me-an-old-crt-monitor/ http://www.ecojoes.com/i-saved-me-an-old-crt-monitor/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:58:09 +0000 ecojoe http://www.ecojoes.com/i-saved-me-an-old-crt-monitor/
It’s still good, it’s still good…Back in the day, CRTs were all the rage. For those o’ you that don’t know, CRTs are those big, heavy monitors that used to be all over the place. All the cool kids had them. But no more. Now, people can get flat-panel monitors for a lot cheaper than they used to be. This has led to perfectly good (except for the fact they weigh a ton) CRT monitors being thrown away. Which leads to what I saw yesterday…

Discovery of the Discarded CRTs

I was leaving work when I happened to see some mess next to the dumpster. I took a closer look, and fought down a wave of nausea as I realized that another office was throwing away two old CRT monitors. With tears in me eyes, I gingerly lifted them and brought them into my car, hushing their whimpers as I buckled them in.

Resuscitation of the CRT Monitors

I peeled into my house’s parking space and ran the heavy CRTs into my computer room at home. They were safe… for now. Luckily, I actually needed a CRT, since I had tried to set up Linux Mint on a computer, but had failed when it tried to use monitor frequencies that my other monitor couldn’t handle. Anyhoo, I ended up using the found CRT to successfully fix up that computer.

Where Can I Donate my CRT Monitor?

If you have a CRT you don’t want, you gots some options on where to donate it:

  • Ask a public school or library if they want it.
  • Give it away on Freecycle, Craigslist, or OhSoHandy
  • See if Goodwill or another thrift store wants it

Why Shouldn’t I Just Throw Out My CRT?

First, it’s wasteful. Come on now. Second, there’s a lot of toxic mess in CRTs that could leak out in a dump, such as:

  • lead
  • phosphorous
  • cadmium
  • barium
  • mercury

Moral of the Story

Instead of just tossing your old, faithful CRT monitor into the trash, give it a second life somewhere. You’ll be helping someone while helping the environment, too. Now that’s what I’m talking about.

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