Computer on 24/7 or off every night?

Dont leave it on if its not doing anything. I leave mine on processing folding@home data and maybe downloading something. Otherwise it would be off.

For all practical purposes, in the US of A, on average, 1 watt of electrical power used 24/7/365 = $1 per year. That's a pretty good incentive to cut off what's not really needed.

Something most people don't know: power bricks use power regardless of their client devices connection and/or power on status. In other words, leaving your cell phone charger plugged into a wall socket costs essentially the same whether the phone is attached and being charged or not. Same goes for the power bricks that supply printers, laptops and other devices.

APC makes an absolutely wonderful power strip (w/ surge suppressor circuitry) -- model # P7GT -- which can switch on auxiliary devices when it senses power being drawn by a master device. (see: APC Power-Saving Essential SurgeArrest 7 outlet, with phone line protection, 120V) I've got half a dozen of these around the house.

That being said, I have three computers and two NAS units. I have the NAS units set with automatic drive spin-down and to "wake on LAN." Two of the computers I turn on only when needed. The third, my main computer, stays on all day but is usually turned off before I go to sleep. The one exception is that I leave all three computers on Sunday nights so that they can call home (M$, others) for updates and run full backups.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but constantly turning it off and on every day actually wears the hardware down faster than if it's on 24/7. Also, the power if uses really isn't that much to even notice on your bill. I've had all of my computers on non-stop except for OS re-installs and updates (about 6 computers) and I've never really noticed a large increase in my bill. And plus, I'm always on a computer so it's better than waiting a few seconds for it to boot up.

EDIT: Saw someone mentioned they turn theirs off if their away for long periods. I usually do that but once I was doing something on it the last second before our family left for vacation and it ended up staying on the entire time we were gone, which was about 3 months lol. But at the hotel I'm like **** I forgot my music so I just SSH'd into it and all was good =).

Bryce said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but constantly turning it off and on every day actually wears the hardware down faster than if it's on 24/7. Also, the power if uses really isn't that much to even notice on your bill. I've had all of my computers on non-stop except for OS re-installs and updates (about 6 computers) and I've never really noticed a large increase in my bill. And plus, I'm always on a computer so it's better than waiting a few seconds for it to boot up.

Indeed, turnin off and on may stress a little bit the hardware.
BUT, You certainly will change it before because you'll find it not "up to date".
The "utility time to live" is really less than the "hardware time to live".

This is absolutly not a argument against turning off your computer when you do not need it (or even a S3 sleep, which take 2sec for waking up)


About the bill: Of course it depends of your overall bill. If the reste of the house is like a darkhole, a single computer will not make many difference. But at the time we talk, Energy saving is not a whim. Little things can have big consequence, but if you don't care about all ofthat... It is not in your honor.
Don't think about your bill.. but about your children ...

Computers, even ones with very large power supplies and high-powered graphics cards, rarely actually draw anywhere near the total power for which their supplies are rated. My main computer has a 750-watt power supply and contains 14 hard drives. At idle, it draws only about 235 watts -- essentially the same as 4x 60-watt light bulbs.

Regardless, left on doing nothing but sitting there idling 24/7/365, my computer would add approximately $235 to my electric bill annually. The 1-watt 24/7/365 = $1 annually adage is a pretty accurate estimate based on the average cost of electricity in the United States.

There is another handy device that will tell you the actual power used by devices in your home -- it's the P3 Kill A Watt monitor (see: P3 - Kill A Watt and other versions).

Depends on your power bill and how your electricity is generated.

When I'm back home our Electricity is cheap (Non Carbon - Thermal and Hydro) so it's probably less wear and tear to leave the machine on than stop and start it.

I wish we could find some way of exporting it -- Engineers out there - if there are any more of you left left these days -- we have a MEGA MEGA SURPLUS of energy but no way of currently getting it into approx 2,000 KM undersea high capacity transmisson lines. If you could solve this problem you could :

1) make such a fortune that would make Mr Gates look like a "Bag person" that you sometimes see in the US panhandling under Freeway Bridges.

2) contribute HUGELY to Green energy and a cleaner planet.

3) Tell the Saudis and similar countries to go back to riding (or smoking) Camels again and also tell the governments of these countries to "Go and make a sexual move with a Duck".

4) Get your money back that you invested in our screwed up Banking system. -- At least we aren't the only one's whose banks are totally hosed up so I don't feel too guilty about that -- if you play "Casino" then you have to take losses as well as gains.

My Linux server has currently been running for 283 days since last re-boot.

Cheers
jimbo

Ex_Brit said:

but here we have relatively cheap hydro-electricity so am not too worried about it personally..

"cheap hydro-electricity" is nothing if there's no power saving!!

This kind of thinks made me sad ! You just look at you little navel without any look around you, Shame on you !

If everybody think like you, you can be sure that your "cheap hydro-electricity" will not stay cheap for long !