Shut Down Nightly vs 24/7 Studies?

[jack1953]

Hey all,

I know I can be ad nauseum with this, but before I ask my question I just want, AGAIN to thank everyone here and the originators of this forum. The information has been priceless for someone who is just starting out with Windows 7 like myself.

Does anyone know of any true, experimental, apples to apples, studies that have been done, that would show any evidence whether or not shutting down a computer daily is better or worse than leaving it on and rebooting once a week or so?

I've read the threads here and although there seems to be more in favor of a nightly shut down, there still doesn't seem to be any factual evidence one way or the other.

From my own personal experience, I got 8 years out of a Dell PC with Windows XP, by shutting down at night, but I was just curious if MS or any other reputible outfit, has done an experiment/study thereof?

Thanks again,

Jack

 

[bigmck]

I've read the threads here and although there seems to be more in favor of a nightly shut down, there still doesn't seem to be any factual evidence one way or the other.


Thanks again,

Jack[/QUOTE]

I don't know of any studies on this, but despite what you said above, I believe most folks on here leave their PC on all the time. I shut down maybe once a week just to reboot but otherwise it is on all the time.

 

[richc46]

Many in the know, here, feel that a nightly shutdown is the way to go.
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/211476-shutting-down-restarting-laptop.html

 

[Hopalong X]

Electronics hardware only has so many hours of life.

I shut mine down.
My sleep and hibernate are disabled.

If sleep and hibernate are available then that would be an option but I still prefer off.

 

[richnrockville]

Jack1953, My recommendation is to shut down if your not going to be using it for a while. Especially any laptops.
Leaving the computer on allows the fans to keep sucking in dust which over time could impede the heat sink on your processor. This is not good.

Just my opinion.

Rich

 

[spleener]

WARNING/DISCLAIMER : the following is purely anecdotal evidence (sorry to not adhere to your very respectable request for factual information. ) Oh, and this applies to the situation of not utilizing sleep or hibernation.

Leaving computer on 24/7:
1) squanders electricity
2) leads to more dust build up since air is circulating in the case

Besides, it's quite satisfying to watch a system boot off an SSD! Hehe.

 

[bigmck]

I am shocked............I would have bet the house that 95% of you guys leave it on all the time. Well that just "shows to go ya" that when someone knows everything (as I do), that they can even be wrong.

 

[jack1953]

WARNING/DISCLAIMER : the following is purely anecdotal evidence (sorry to not adhere to your very respectable request for factual information. ) Oh, and this applies to the situation of not utilizing sleep or hibernation.

Leaving computer on 24/7:
1) squanders electricity
2) leads to more dust build up since air is circulating in the case

Besides, it's quite satisfying to watch a system boot off an SSD! Hehe.

spleener,,

never had any experience with an SSD. For the sake of not hijacking this thread, can you PM me your reviews of the SSD?

jack

 

[JimLewandowski]

I favor the environment over my own desires. However, with that said, for all I know, a reboot once a week will use more watts than leaving it on all the time......

I turn mine off every single night and mght have only accidentally left it on overnight a few times over the past 15 years.

 

[fseal]

Hehehe

yeah, I've never seen a real study that studied if the power surge of a power on cycle does more damage over time than leaving it on... One thing about leaving it on that does shorten it's life is power surges from storms. I've lost more equipment to that than anything else. (Course that's hat surge protectors are supposed to help... maybe).

But in the end, especially these days, it all comes down to power use. Electricity = $$ and in some cases it's significant. If a machine NEEDS to be on 24/7 then it should be left on 24/7, if it doesn't then it shouldn't. Not to mention tha anti-greenness of just plain pure power waste which we should all feel a bit bad about (Till fusion is all up and running I guess).

I've got 8 active machines in my house, if I left them all on 24/7 it'd break me As it is there are only two, a WHS (server) of mine and a linux server of my wife's and I wish we could agree on getting hat down to one, but oh well. That alone probably costs us about $30 a month or more.

 

[pparks1]

I shut mine down daily, I don't see a reason to use the electricity for hours on end if I am not at the computer. My server runs 24x7, but not my workstation.

 

[Frank1]

I've been using a computer for over 20 years and I shut it down every night. I have never had a computer go bad. I believe that shutting done clears the memory if anything is lodged there. I can't be certain about the newer computers, but I do know that a few years ago that used to be the case. I can say for certain that sometimes when things don't seem to be working right, a re-boot can fix it.

 

[bigmck]

I've been using a computer for over 20 years and I shut it down every night. I have never had a computer go bad. I believe that shutting done clears the memory if anything is lodged there. I can't be certain about the newer computers, but I do know that a few years ago that used to be the case. I can say for certain that sometimes when things don't seem to be working right, a re-boot can fix it.

I agree fully about shutting down to clear things.

 

[1Bowtie]

I personally shut mine down every nite and have ever since i started computing, but i know people my brother for one that runs his 24/7

 

[DeaconFrost]

I don't think it will have much affect on a computer's life over time. I think it would be more of a personal preference. I shut mine down at night, because I never saw the point of running a computer overnight. I obviously won't use it while I'm sleep, or the next day while I'm at work. I'll turn it on for a few hours at night, and that's it. Only my WHS box stays on all the time.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I did some pretty careful calculations about the power consumption on my PC, using known rates and a Killawatt device to measure consumption.

I pay 13 cents per kilowatt hour. My PC is idling most of the time and turned on about 11 hours a day. Taking all that into consideration, it uses about $39 in power per year.

If I were to leave it on all the time, it would use over $80 per year.

That alone is enough to get me to turn it off every night and whenever it might not be used for 3 or 4 hours.

Several years ago, I read a bunch of pros and cons about 24/7 versus nightly shut downs. Starting up 500 times a year may put more stress on components than starting up 2 or 20 times per year, but I can't recall anything that suggested the cost of the stress was greater than the power consumption reduction.

If you boot daily and have a certain hardware failure rate, who is to say that the failure rate would be lower if you booted less frequently?

 

[Layback Bear]

I shut my computer when ever I not using it. With today's quality power supplies their very little surge if any. Any use of electronics takes away a little of it's life small bite at a time. Yes a shutdown and restart sometimes fixes little problems and does a ram cleanup. For a one or two computer household I don't think you will see a difference in the electric bill one way or the other. To me it's like leaving a light on in a room you won't be back to for a hour or so; why. The put a switch on the wall, use it. It only takes a minute or two to do a Start Up on a hard disk and a lot less with ssd. Go to the john, crack a beverage, kiss the wife or what ever and you will never notice that short period of boot time. Heck it take me that time to get to the kitchen for a fresh cup of coffee. If you leave your computer run 24/7 and are not using it you now have a vacuum cleaner sucking in all the dust bunnies.

 

[fseal]

Is that 13c including transport costs? And is that your top tier pricing?

We have split electrical/transport costs here and tiered pricing. Right now at my current top tier usage I am at 33 cents kwh all told! Every little bit you save come off the TOP. (And conversely every bit you add goes ON the top)

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Is that 13c including transport costs? And is that your top tier pricing?

(Maybe someone some where in the US pays that little) but more like 27-35c/kwh (like in my area).

I'm in a neighboring state and used to live in Northern Cal.

That's a grand total per kilowatt hour. It varies depending on time of day and month of the year, but the 13 cents is an overall average considering all of that. Some months I pay 6 cents. Other months I pay 21 cents, etc. I keep a monthly spreadsheet breaking it all down.

I'm sure you are right about 27 to 35 in California; all the more reason why the state has been going downhill for decades. I imagine there are a lot of taxes in that total.

Clearly, the more you pay, the more reason to shut down a PC whenever possible.

 

[Lord Method Man]

I spent 20 years shutting mine down every night. A couple years ago I switched to using S3 sleep and haven't looked back.