I’m just going to go out on a limb here, and go ahead and guess you’re reading this post on a computer. I know, I’m pretty quick like that. Not only that, but you may be surprised to know that I wrote this post on a computer, too. Shocking, I know. Now, already, just for this little bit of business we’re dealing with right now, we have two computers going. And the odds are, though maybe not for a site like this, all this is being done on PCs. There are an estimated one billion PCs chugging away on this planet these days, and it turns out that burns a lot of energy.

And now a global corporation, a nonprofit, and a startup company are joining together to reduce that energy burned through PCs, at no cost to you!   Microsoft, Climate Savers Computing Initiative, and Verdiem are distributing a free software tool, right now, to consumers wanting to reduce emissions coming from household PCs. From an article in The New York Times:

The free software, called Edison, is a consumer version of the PC energy-saving software sold to corporate customers by Verdiem…

If a user sets the software to put the machine in a deep sleep mode after a few minutes of not hitting a keystroke, the hard drive powers down and the PC sips just 5 percent of its normal energy consumption.

That kind of energy diet is far from standard practice in homes and offices. Half of all electricity consumed by a standard PC is wasted, according to environmental and industry studies.

By using this software with your PC, you could save anywhere from twenty to almost a hundred bucks a year in energy bills. Not too shabby. If you have a PC, takepart and download Edison, right now, for free!