Computer on 24/7 or off every night?

[jimbo45]

"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 !

This stuff is available for almost nothing -- doesn't take much to put a few generators around a big waterfall.

I see you are from France -- just look at Andorra ( French / Spanish / Andorrean borders) -- Huge Hydro plant there -- if you are paying a lot for your power then someone is ripping you off -- and that's the electricity company not the planet.

Incidentally I'd be very wary as a French guy if I were you getting involved in discussing "Green Power". France per capita is probably the Biggest user / generator of Nuclear power on this planet.

Not trying to be nasty as this is a Windows Forum and not "Greenpeace" but considering its use of Nuclear Energy France really has no say in "Green Energy".

Cheers

jimbo

 

[Bryce]

I'm surprised I leave mine on all the time though. I'm always yelling at my parents/brothers about turning lights off when their not in the room or if they've got freaken every window open and it's day outside.

Seriously, who the hell needs a light on when there's 4-5 OPEN windows letting in all the sunlight? They're like we can't see, I say bull****!

 

[nate42nd]

I learned a long time ago to just leave it on. I will leave it on for months at a time. Restart once in a while. I have found less problems this way. Leave it on....there's plenty of coal.

 

[LePoilu]

This stuff is available for almost nothing -- doesn't take much to put a few generators around a big waterfall.

Of Course then we all need to make hydrogenerator everywhere on the planet!! It's the only one solution!

Hydroelectricity is one solution.. but at least not the best. There's other issue with it.. and it's not the "greener" solution... The problem is not white or black..

I see you are from France -- just look at Andorra ( French / Spanish / Andorrean borders) -- Huge Hydro plant there -- if you are paying a lot for your power then someone is ripping you off -- and that's the electricity company not the planet.

Yeah .. and take a look to the big hydro-electric dam in China.. and go ask the millions of people who loss their home.. and all the farmland destroyed thanks to the beautifull dam!

Incidentally I'd be very wary as a French guy if I were you getting involved in discussing "Green Power". France per capita is probably the Biggest user / generator of Nuclear power on this planet.

Not trying to be nasty as this is a Windows Forum and not "Greenpeace" but considering its use of Nuclear Energy France really has no say in "Green Energy".

You Right..I'm French... And I'm certainly the one who take the decision using nuclear energy in my country (in fact I wasn't born at this time..). You're really nice you guy... I love you too.

So be serious 30sec, and think a little bit. We talking about energy saving.. stopping the mess of Energy all single day.
Until 100% of our energy (by "Our" I mean for all the people all over the world) is not green power, the best thing we can do at our little level is to make all we can do to not waste the energy with so ridiculus things like let our coomputer On all the night.. for absolutly nothing !
Without Energy Saving you can make all the HydroElectric Dam you want it'll be a pure wast of money, and a huge ecological disaster.
And At this time it's optimistic to think that we can leave with only greenpower without personnal energy saving.
Saying "mine is hydro-electric, I can waste all the power I want", it's just silly and egoist !

It's not being some greenpeace guy or other.. It's just a using our brain and open our Eyes.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

A lot of Hydro electric plants don't involve building massive dams and destroying people's homes -- especially if you use things like Massive Waterfalls.

Thermal energy also is "Spewed out" daily whether you harness it or not so by using the energy you aren't actually wasting anything in any case.

I think most people can agree that one of the most problematic ways of using electricity is the Nuclear option -- both on making the original fuel and then getting rid of the waste. And I'm afraid whether you like it or not France per capita is by far the largest Nuclear generator on Earth.

It might reduce France's dependence on imported Oil -- nothing wrong with that aim but certainly doesn't help in "Green Credentials" so suggestions on avoiding "wasteful use of Energy" emanating from that particular country (in spite of Great food and wine) will tend to fall on deaf ears.

Actually most people don't regard me as Horrible although I might appear to sound it from the Posts - but there's so much B/S spoken when discussing "Global Warming" / "Energy Conservation" and other stuff like that usually by "non Engineers" who haven't a clue in how energy is generated in the first place.

Actually I had the same argument in a Paris Bar with a load of french guys -- we all ended up having some drinks together anyway.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[LePoilu]

A lot of Hydro electric plants don't involve building massive dams and destroying people's homes -- especially if you use things like Massive Waterfalls.

Thermal energy also is "Spewed out" daily whether you harness it or not so by using the energy you aren't actually wasting anything in any case.

You right.. there's waterfall all around the earth.. And there's Thermal Source Everywhere... please don't be silly...

I think most people can agree that one of the most problematic ways of using electricity is the Nuclear option -- both on making the original fuel and then getting rid of the waste. And I'm afraid whether you like it or not France per capita is by far the largest Nuclear generator on Earth.

It might reduce France's dependence on imported Oil -- nothing wrong with that aim but certainly doesn't help in "Green Credentials" so suggestions on avoiding "wasteful use of Energy" emanating from that particular country (in spite of Great food and wine) will tend to fall on deaf ears.

So, because I'm French and because someone, one day decide to use Nuclear Energy, I'm not able to try to think a little bit more about energy saving ??


Sorry to say that .. but you are so stupid ! Your reflexion really piss me off !

 

[weh]

On the other hand, simply building generating facilities costs -- both in terms of money and resources. Conserving electricity, even when the cost of the source of the energy is essentially nil, reduces the immediate need for an ongoing expansion of generating facilities.

Now, please stop slinging mud.

 

[jimbo45]

On the other hand, simply building generating facilities costs -- both in terms of money and resources. Conserving electricity, even when the cost of the source of the energy is essentially nil, reduces the immediate need for an ongoing expansion of generating facilities.

Now, please stop slinging mud.

You're right of course

Now I'm actually going to turn the Machine off and have a nice glass or two of Scotch Malt Whisky.

Trouble with the Internet it's so easy to get drawn into discussions that really don't have too much to do with W7.

Anyway whilst I'll turn the other machines off on the Network I'm afraid there's no way my Linux server will be switched off.

G'night all.

Jimbo

 

[weh]

Now I'm actually going to turn the Machine off and have a nice glass or two of Scotch Malt Whisky.

I'm partial to Talisker -- I've a couple bottles each of 10, 12 and 18 y/o on hand.

 

[hdjunkie]

I leave both of my desktops on 24/7. In fact, my sony vaio from late 2004 has pretty much been running 24/7 since then. My xps 420 is always on because it's my dvr but even if it wasn't I wouldn't turn it off.
I don't see any pros to leaving it on if you don't have to, or don't mind waiting a minute or two. I'd rather pay $10, or $20 more a month just to not deal with it. There have been times where I was on the same session for over a month w/o a restart. Plus, it seems whenever I turn off my PC I need it five minutes later.
Oh, and I've never had any hardware failures and I've always left my computers on (since 1995).
It's different for everyone, and it's really up to how you use your PC.

 

[silkman]

When my brother stayed at home he had 4 servers and 2 desktops running 24/7 with a large 10KVA ups, firewalls, routers etc always on. Power bill was about €900 / 4 months. When he left and took all the hw with him, first bill was normal (2 months), next one was €600 credit

Now electricity is less than half than it used to be... Standby makes sense, especially with large gaming rigs etc.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Well Europe is one of the areas where electricity was hopelessly overpriced to start with and privatization as in the UK made things worse for a while.

I guess the whole idea is to use less electricity to save the planet. My current rig is twice as powerful as my old one but actually uses less power because it's much more efficient.

As improvments are made in how computers are made and components work, it hopefully can only get better.

I wont accept the emerging argument in soime quarters that says we should pay more for electricity in order to force us to cut down on its use. Sorry, that is simply a money grab, nothing to do with saving the planet.

 

[smarteyeball]

Well Europe is one of the areas where electricity was hopelessly overpriced to start with and privatization as in the UK made things worse for a while.

It's certainly making things worse in Australia atm.

I wont accept the emerging argument in some quarters that says we should pay more for electricity in order to force us to cut down on its use. Sorry, that is simply a money grab, nothing to do with saving the planet.

Couldn't agree more.

Ideologically, the idea has merit - were that the real intention - but ideology and reality are two separate entities with next to nothing in common.

It's simply gouging, no matter how much 'delusion dust' you sprinkle.


As for the topic, my sig rig gets turned off when not in use. Another low end machine runs 24/7.

 

[24c]

I leave mine on 24/7 for the best reason of all - I want to.

Also, I have 5 SSDs, and if I shut down I'm afraid they'll feel unwanted, unloved, and unneeded.

"To hell with the trees, hug your cool SSDs."

Posted with all due respect to any and all opposing viewpoints.

 

[robmulally]

For me: Off - Shutdown
a) Stability - after time open/running apps (including the OS) won't clean up the memory and the system will become unstable, hibernate/sleep can also contribute to this as well.
b) power consumption
c) noise while sleeping

 

[steve-pressman]

Sorry but I leave mine on 24/7 too although it boots in a few seconds I like the fact that is instantly available I let my monitor go off after an hour though.


Steve

 

[Dzomlija]

Me, I leave Prometheus on 24/7 because she also plays the role as media server for the Mede8er in the lounge.

And she's also busy 24/7 downloading digital tv shows (works out cheaper than sattelite tv, even though South Africa is the most expensive country in the world in terms of broadband internet - with the slowest lines too!)

 

[gregrocker]

Sleep works so well now that I like to have it sleep after 30 minutes then hibernate after a couple of hours.

This way if I walk away and come back to work quickly the desktop is back up quickly with a keystroke, or if I come back later, it takes just a few seconds longer to Power up and Resume.

This has gradually changed me from being an always-shut-down guy to letting the improved Power management in Win7 do it for me., One less thing to think about.

 

[Zepher]

it depends on how much you use your machine. If you only use it for a few of hours a day, then turn it off. if you use it a lot more then keep it on.

I keep my main machine on 24/7 and my HTPC is on when I watch movies or need files from it, otherwise it is off.

Heat cycling is also hard on components shortening their life.

 

[pparks1]

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).

I agree with getting a Kill-A-Watt meter. I've seen them for about $20 at Radio Shack. They can record usage over a period of time to tell you on average what your computer is drawing. I've got a few low power linux boxes which only take about 62 watts when running...but gaming boxes that take 250+ watts when running.

So, with that device, you can determine your kwh draw of your computer and then compare to your power bill to see what power costs you. Generally in the US, the cost of power increases when you use more power. So, how much it really costs depends upon a variety of other things that you also run.

I think I calculated that my box would cost me about $14 monthly if I left it on 24x7.