A greener Home Office

Making our Office space more eco-friendly (and cheaper!)

This is a more difficult one, especially for someone like me who uses their Computer a lot for more energy eating projects.

My PC uses are Typing (remember just that!), Digital Camera photo editing, Camcorder editing and burning DVD's, Webcam and Microphone for 'conferencing, listening to music as I work, watching the occasional Movie. Then there's my son who likes it now and again for his high graphic modern gaming etc.

All this needs more technology and higher specifications. It's either having a PC with all the gadgets or sitting there drinking 3 cups of Coffee whilst it loads some of these softwares up, then another 4 whilst you actually waiting for it to show on the screen.

Luckily, technology is racing, in fact it's racing so much that if you blink an eye, some new Operating System or higher speed graphics card has been introduced onto the market.

All this results in the Home Office almost sucking electricity into your Home thus making the Suppliers wealthy on your needs and demands (all flying the green flag at the same time of course!).

PC v Laptop
I use the PC now mainly for Camcorder editing and my son for his gaming. The PC takes five 13amp plugs to run at it's full potential.

For all other things and my website work, I now use the Laptop = one 13amp plug! It's got a pretty good spec, although slightly slower than the main PC, but are we in that much of a rush!

The Laptop cost me slightly less than the main PC. The PC takes up half the bedroom. The laptop a small corner of the Kitchen Table. Working in the Kitchen also means one heater less elsewhere and most of the fuel I burn is foraged from the woods - so frugal implications as well!

The other reason I brought the Laptop was 'green and mean'. If I work on the main PC during the winter, I need the Heater on in the room, whereas with the Laptop I can sit at the Kitchen Table beside the Rayburn burning it's free collected wood and feel quite snug at the same time.

Researching around the Energy saving websites, there are variations of the amount of energy saved. These vary from Laptops using one tenth the electricity compared to a PC, down to one fifth.
Even one fifth adds up over a year and you've probably not only saved a bit of carbon footprint but saved yourself quite a lot of money at the same time!

By having a Home Network system, either Wireless or wired, you can share the information between computers. That's OK, but to do so, you need to have both on at the same time.
A good idea there is to transfer the information by a USB Flash Drive (which are as cheap as chips nowadays).
You then copy and paste things between the two. This also acts as a good back up system should one of the two computers suddenly go bang, which happened to me once!

So, if I were starting off again, or if I was just using computers without the need for gaming or high-end photo / camcorder editing, I'd certainly choose a Laptop!

Other Considerations
Of course, the Home Office doesn't just stop at the Computer.
There are many other items such as Office Furniture, paper pens, folders, lighting etc., which can all be purchased with your personal green environment in mind, many being Fair Trade and thus helping other people on this Planet to live a better life than they do now.

The thing about living in the fourth (is it?) wealthiest economy in the World is that we have become people to accept thing's as said.
A higher standard of living is expected now

My PC in 'the office', a mass of technology and speed !

And the power needed. I am not proud

One Laptop, one 13amp Plug

Since writing this page I have moved my Office in to the Garden Shed. For details, go to
'The Frugal Garden Office'

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