Whether you work at home, do personal banking online, or simply communicate via e-mail, you may step away from your computer meaning to get back to it shortly, and hours go by before you do. You may even leave your computer and accessory equipment on overnight.

To minimize unnecessary use of electricity, following are some tips for using your computer and accessories:

1. Activate the power management feature on your computer and monitor, which triggers a low-power “sleep mode” after a designated period of inactivity.
2. Turn off your printer, scanner, and copier when not in use.
3. Turn off your computer’s monitor if you are not going to use it for more than 20 minutes.
4. Turn off the computer if you are not going to use it for more than two hours.
5. Unplug items such as the AC adapter for your laptop, battery chargers, and your computer when not in use to cut their draw of standby power. However, you may not want to cut the power to your computer modem, as it may take several minutes for the signal to be restored. 
6. Plug accessory equipment into a power strip to conveniently cut power to items plugged into hard-to-reach outlets. To cut power to sensitive computer equipment and protect it from power quality disturbances use a high-quality surge suppressor.
7. When purchasing new equipment, select energy-efficient models. Overall, ENERGY STAR®-qualified office products, which include computers, monitors, printers, scanners, copiers, and fax machines, use about half the electricity that standard equipment uses.
8. Consider purchasing a laptop computer, which uses much less energy than a desktop model.