Computers, laptops, e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, cell phones, regular phones - there are seemingly endless ways to communicate and stay connected to one another in this technological world. If someone can’t be reached in an instant message, there’s always a phone call, a text message, an e-mail or, my personal favorite, the Facebook wall post as ways to reach the person you’re trying to find.

A computer is one of those devices that doesn’t use up as much electricity as its household counterparts if used sparingly, but when left on for hours at a time surpasses them on energy usage.

According to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Web site, a subset of the U.S. Department of Energy, a laptop uses about 50 watts of energy while a computer with monitor (both on) would use about 270. Compare that to a washer (350-500 watts) and dryer (1,800 to 5,000 watts), and the energy that computers use seems like a drop in the bucket. But a washer and dryer aren’t being used every day, and on the day they are used, they are utilized for probably a few hours at most.

According to Ron Chapman, director of energy management here at OU, there are about 4,300 computers in the dorms (assuming each dorm room has one computer), and approximately 8,000 off-campus. Alden Library’s Web site also boasts that it has “well over 200″ computers throughout its building.

Combine a massive amount of computers with the necessity to stay connected, and there is a huge amount of energy being used. Chapman estimates OU’s electric bill would probably be about $5.983 million - and you thought your electric bill was bad! While this obviously isn’t just coming from computers, any superfluous energy use increases that number.

Now, you might be saying that you live off-campus, so why bother with OU’s electric bill? If you do live off-campus, then you know that your wallet sees extra energy use and quivers in fear because that’s more money spent on electricity and less on booze and burritos (I’m aiming to have burritos in the paper every day from now on).