Community weekly poll: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use?
- 1/25/08 3:02 PM
Carlos from Costa Rica.
by carlomart - 1/26/08 1:22 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes I do. In my country, we have the culture, about certain kind of electric appliances, to cut out the power to protect it. Not for economy reasons, but is a habit. I think, the life of my computer, and all the hardware, is longer doing that. Remember problems with the fans, after several hours of use.
Computer States
by typhoon56 - 1/26/08 1:48 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The only time I turn my computer off is if I am likely to be away for any considerable length of time. At night I hibernate it and during the day I leave it on stand by.
The problem with turning it off all the time is it takes an inordinate amount of time to start up again.
I don't think a state of hibernation or stand by is likely to make much difference to the so called carbon foot print, which the Physics of which I don't believe anyway.
Turning Off Computer
by Dandy Don - 1/26/08 2:51 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi From Texas,
I turn my home computer off when not in use.If you leave it on all the time it gives hackers time to come in your computer and look around. Who knows what information they can get or steal
do i turn off my computer.
by flipflop1234 - 1/26/08 3:16 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
YES !! To reduce my carbon footprint but mainly to reduce my electric bill,is,nt that just common sense??
There really is no "off" anymore, but I try
by punterjoe - 1/26/08 3:53 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I know all too well that most gear continues to sip from the power grid when ostensibly off. When I can power up my PC simply by hitting the keyboard, I know it's merely deeply asleep. Still, the disks are spun down, all the fans are quiet, leds are out & there's no network activity. That's good enough for me. Powering down is as much about preventing processes I didn't initiate as it is about saving energy & component wear. While I take great pains to avoid my PC being conscripted into a botnet, I still power down when not using it. Whether working for it's zombie overlords or merely checking in with the 'legit' software vendors, as so many apps do these days, I want no part of it. When I sleep, my PC does too.
computor turn off when not used
by fixted - 1/26/08 4:55 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes I turn my unit off for two reasons the first is no one will use it the rest of the day.The second reason is it cannot be hacked when off.
energie saving
by albleroy - 1/26/08 5:58 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes allways I turnof or in standby for energie saving . We have to make attention on the consumption of energie in order to guaranty a planet in good order for our childeren !!! The change oc climat is partly due to energie use !!
Faithfull,
Albert
Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use?
by Kdogtrainer1 - 1/26/08 6:05 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I turn mine off for 3 reasons. 1 for the energy part. 2 because I don't like things running when I am not home in case something would overheat and catch fire and 3 because I have a lot of animals and I am always cleaning animal hair from the vents on my computer. If I left it running all the time there would be a bunch more fur clogging it up no matter how much I vacuum and dust the house.
Why pay for wasted electricity?
by spece - 1/26/08 6:36 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I turn it off over night. I'm not going to get up in the middle of the night to use it. Even if it goes into Hibernation or Standby, it's still using some power. And, my electric bill is sky high as it is. I also unplug whatever appliances I can when not in use (those that stay in a standby mode when off, or have lights on even when not in use).
I do not turn off my system
by 46thchief - 1/26/08 6:41 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I did for a long time, but now I have problem if I remove all power.
When i shut down completely I lose the clock and bios settings. If I leave power to the motherboard it holds fine. Yes, I have replaced the battery twice to no avail. So rather than have to reset everything, I just leave power on. I guess this isn't really to relative to the question, but there you are.
that stinks
by mjoyce91 - 1/26/08 7:04 AM In reply to: I do not turn off my system by 46thchiefhave you considered putting it in standby mode or hibernation mode?
Routine maintenance
by rbsjrx - 1/26/08 7:20 AM In reply to: that stinks by mjoyce91More to the point, has he considered actually getting it fixed??? This reminds me of the old Dave Barry approach to auto repair... If your car makes a suspicious noise, turn up the radio.
Why Most of the Time
by wwy00 - 1/26/08 6:50 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If I am going to be gone from the computer for more than 1/2 hour then off she goes. This is saving the electricity. If I think I will be gone less than one half an hour I leave it on because I do not want a warm computer to be hit with a sudden surge of electricity it harmful, or so I have been told. In general, I use a system of constructive selfishness to govern my actions. I do what is necessary to keep my costs down. There is a by-product to this, it is also good to the environment.
usually
by mjoyce91 - 1/26/08 7:01 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I usually turn off my computer on school nights, as my computer is pretty loud (5 fans). I also turn it off when I'm at school. The only times I don't turn it off are weekends or friday nights. i'm not sure why, but i don't. i guess i just do it incase i'm not tired and want to get on the computer. but i would say my computer is off 75-85 hours a week. I would say most people I know never turn their computer off, so I'm keeping it on about half as long as they are. On the other hand, my computer uses a lot more energy than my friends' conputers. I turn off my computer when it's not in use, not to save energy, but to save the components of the computer. When you leave your computer on, the power supply's wattage decreases. So say you have a 520W power supply and you don't turn your computer off for a year straight - it might go down to 500W, opposed to 510W if you turn it off every night and while you're at work for a year. Hard drives also have, on average, a 3 year life span. Assuming this is due to the amount of time it's on, turning off your computer during the day and night will increase this to 6 years.
Now maybe I'm just saying this because my computer starts up in less than 45 seconds. If you have an older, slower computer, you may not be willing to do this every day.
True Power Usage...
by mdburkey - 1/26/08 1:02 PM In reply to: usually by mjoyce91A typical 500W power supply will only be drawing 100-125W of power from the grid during normal operation with a typical PC.
The wattage rating of the supply does not in ANY way tell you how much power your PC is actually using. It just tells you the maximum amount of regulated power that the supply can provide (which is NOT indicative of how much it is actually using either).
A typical 500W supply without active PFC has about 65-75% efficiency at typical power levels -- which means that if it is operating under full load at 500W it is actually using about 714VA of load from the grid.
I get very amused by people pushing high efficiency power supplies with Active PFC to save people money on their electric bills. Don't get me wrong, I favor high efficiency units because they are better for the environment -- but they make almost zero difference to your power bill. The typical residential meter is setup to track KiloWatt hours and is not capable of tracking the actual VA usage by equipment that is significantly out of phase with the incoming power. Commercial setups with large motors generally WILL track the true VA loading (or if you are running a factory with motors that are operating significantly out of phase, your power company will be coming to talk to you RSN). In essence, Active PFC supplies are great for the utility company and less waste heat will be generated by the supply, but you will still get billed the same regardless.
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