The search for the greenest Zorin OS (reduce power-draw, heat, improve battery life)

[Stal]

green /adjective/
a. environmentally sound or beneficial;
b. concerned with or supporting environmentalism;
c. tending to preserve environmental quality (as by being recyclable, biodegradable, or nonpolluting)
//greenest Zorin OS

Installing Zorin OS to breath new life in/or extend the use of older computers that would otherwise would have been discarded, is in itself already beneficial for the environment by preventing more e-waste and reducing the need to excavate more materials that make a computer.

Using any computer however, does require electricity. This always requires natural resources at some point, which can be reduced by limiting power-draw. Even if you use solar power or other forms of green energy exclusively, you would need fewer panels, batteries or >insert power source here< to power your computer(s) and other appliances you rely on.

Other benefits:

• Lower power-draw means lower heat production, means greater longevity of computer parts;
• Extended battery life (for mobile devices);
• Reduced electricity bills.

In this context I'm really curious about two things:

1. Has anyone compared power-draw/battery life for Zorin OS Core/Pro and Zorin OS (Pro) Lite? Gnome or XFCE versions?

I would imagine that because XFCE requires less computing power, the draw is lower. But then again, Gnome sees more development and could be more optimised out-of-the-box.

2. Has anyone ever compared power-saving tools/settings on Zorin OS? Benefits vs drawbacks?

I'm talking about the use of general power settings, TLP, System76-power, PowerTOP, auto-cpufreq, Slimbook Battery, etc.

[Michel]

I think it has more to do in "how" you use your computer or laptop. If one user uses his computer or laptop for office work then it might be different in power use then someone who games alot for sample. For gamers they need all the power for their machine to get better performance.

If you want to save some power.

1. In gpu settings you can switch from permormance to high quality. If you set this setting to performance your saving some energy already. For gamers i recommand high quality.
2. You can do the same on a laptop battery.