Save £100 by greening your PC's power bill

Soaring electricity bills mean reading this page and using your PC costs more every day -- right now, your computer and accessories could be costing you over £200 annually. One way to ease the impact on your bank balance and the climate is to buy new super efficient kit, like LG's recent eco monitor. But an even smarter choice is to use free tweaks to bring down your PC power consumption. The following four tips could save you over £100 every year.

Electricity costs are based on a price of 12p kWh, the UK average (some tariffs are cheaper).

1. Switch your PC off at night
Money saved: £90 a year

Sure, it's mind-numbingly obvious. But many of us leave our computers on overnight, even when they're not backing up files and crunching DVDs for our iPods. For an example of how much you could save, let's look at the Dell Dimension 9200, a middle of the road Windows desktop PC from 2007.

Switched on for 365 days a year, the Dell would cost you £270 a year. Simply shut it down for the eight hours you sleep every night and you'd cut a third off that. The result: £180 a year instead of £270.

Even if you have a relatively low power machine like an Apple Mac Mini, you could be looking at savings of over £35 a year -- just by turning off at night.