Community poll forum: Poll: Do you turn off your computer when it's not in use?

Overnight I more often shut down, but also often hibernate.
When I will be out of the house for 3+ hours I usually use standby, and sometimes hibernate.
Why .. to save power, save wear & tear, and in the case of a power outage my system is much safer than relying upon the UPS to shut it down.

I never heard about starting up like that wearing and tearing your system. But IDK maybe it does. Still i'm going to shut it down anyway to save energy and stuff.

No I do not shut the computer down when I'm not using it..Electronics and especially computers fail most often when they are cold starting. The energy used by a computer is very small when compared to just starting an automobile. Be real and think if you want to be energy efficient.

I use a laptop at work, and a desktop at home. The desktop is off if nobody is using it for the next hour or so. The laptop gets put into hybernation if I walk away from it.

Although the laptop uses much less energy than the desktop, the following discussion about security applies to both. As far as energy savings - the laptop, when at work, is connected to a 24" LCD display, and the display will 'hibernate' when the laptop is suspended. When I have the laptop at home, the hibernate mode uses far less electricity, and if on battery, saves battery charge to boot.

In terms of security - both of these systems are nearly 100% connected to the Internet when turned on. There are so many, many attacks that the simple thought is this - if the computer is off, it is invulnerable to attack through the net.

With all this talk about ozone layers and the rising cost of electricity, plus an all adult household, I try to save a bit when I can. With a main computer and two laptops plus all the other electrical things, it makes sense to save when you can. This includes not using the dryer if I don't have to, switching off the tv of a night, only using the air conditioner when necessary and switching off lights that are no longer needed. So far it hasn't made a big dent in my bill but I live in hope.

As part of an Indepentant of the Government 1st Responder Organization our server and outlying units in the network are monitored by Emergency Response Personal 24/7 monitoring areas like all the Camera feeds along the local freeway system to help keep traffic flow moving. On the master base stations there are usually 4 or sometimes 5 monitors on the systems.

YES
Two reasons; first, computer generate allot of heat (and uses allot of energy), so I turn it off to let it cool down. Second; my computer checks for updates for my spy-ware / anti-virus on a daily bases, I turn it off to let it update anything new that may be downloaded.

Yes, we shutdown/put to sleep whenever we am away from my computers. Each computer is set to go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity. That way the computer is ready to work and only uses a small amount of electricity to keep our computer world warm and spinning. The HDs and monitor pull far more energy than the rest of the computer. The only computer that runs 24/7 is our WHS (no monitor, keyboard or mouse) that makes daily backup of all network computers (6). It also has our personal website available and is used by several friends and family that work weird hours, so that is why it runs 27/7. All computers are set to update and backup at 07:00 daily to prevent waking in the middle of the night and sometimes staying on the remainder of the morning.

BUT the big consumers of energy are plasma TVs, air conditioners and refrigerators. And do not forget the puny light bulb (lamp) that consumes energy and should be turned off whenever leaving a room, it also produces heat that causes the A/C unit to run more, and then we have florescent ceiling lamps that use less energy IF not turned on and off whenever you leave the room for less than 30 minutes.

We have started using lower wattage lamps throughout the house, set the heat pump to 68 degrees and the A/C to 77 degrees. We replaced a good 50 gallon electric water heater with a whole house hot water on demand unit that reduced our energy need considerably.

As I am retired and have plenty of time, I rebuild computers for friends and family using as much stuff from their old computer as possible. If they like the case, I replace the power supply to match their new needs, etc. But I never throw anything into the trash that can endanger the environment. Yes, even the triple A batteries go to the recycle center.

I too am curious about whether or not it's OK since I use Vista. I have always shut my computer completely down, but now I have Vista and it says to put it to sleep and only shut it down if you're going to be away for several days OR if you're installing hardware. I'm putting it to sleep, but I'd feel much better if I was sure it was OK to turn it off daily (wear and tear on my computer??? My old one was fine for 10 years!)

I am one to save on my electric bill (half of the bill is TAX)by shutting down my desk top when it is not in use and the same holds true for my lap top.

I know that the hard drives did at one time have a life expectency of only 3yrs., but that was with the old 386. Todays technology should keep them running for much longer.

Technology keeps pushing us along with new products. So, we buy them because it is not only the new "keeping up with the Jones'" but attempting to remain at least in line with what is happening.

So, powering down/off is a great idea if you want to spend the extra money on new technology.

Joe

I have several PC'c, I always shut down the ones with large hard drives. After a few hours a large hard drive can burn your finger, (that can't be good). The smaller ones >13gig run cool for days. The older machines being used for specific purposes do not overeheat and can be left on. But I often shut them down to save on electric bill.
The last couple of weeks with the shop at extremely low temperatures, maybe I should have funneled the heat into assisting the furnace.

My big system at work I leave on, it takes forever for that old IntelliStation to start up, the network forces lame corporate wallpaper on it (which looks even worse stretched across two monitors, and one of the monitors is dying... it works perfectly as long as it's left on but if it's turned off it doesn't like to stay running after it's turned back on.

At home I just close my laptop when I'm done with it, unless I'm actually taking it somewhere, then it's shut down.

I turn off my computer when not in use. I used to do it to avoid premature cooling fan failures. The computer I now have will hibernate, so I do not have to worry so much about the fans anymore. However, I will still turn it off when not in use, primarily due to unexpected power failures which tend to happen more often than I like.

One of the features that caught my attention when researching for a new computer was the mechanical design of the G5 dual core Power MAC. The Power Mac G5 features a thick anodized aluminum alloy enclosure, designed to provide rugged security as well as conduct heat from inner compartments to the surrounding environment. The new enclosure is built around four independently controlled thermal zones for advanced airflow management, with fans in each zone that are individually controlled based on a combination of thermal and power monitoring, resulting in the Power Mac G5 running two times quieter than the previous Power Mac G4. Since most of the heat is conducted to the case and the case has extensive air-holes for air currents to efficiently remove internal heat generated, the fans are seldom on saving power. This feature alone will make-up for small dollar savings up-front between the two major competing computers based on one of the responses of this forum indicating approximately $400 per year in cost of power to keep the PC on full time. So the gal that prodded the computer community about inattention to energy use, my response is get a MAC, or become the first woman Thoreau near some similar quiet Malden-pond and describe how we might better simplify...simplify as David suggested without the sophisticated modeling needed to cope with increasingly complex problems; e.g. white light generation from RGB LED mixing that is predicted to save 25 % of current oil used in the US.

I have a UPS that measures the actual power being used. My high power dual core computer uses 110 Watts (or higher under heaving processing) and my 24" LCD monitor uses 60 Watts, or around 170 Watts total.

I have the monitor shut off after 10 minutes and the computer go to sleep after 30 minutes. In the sleep state, my computer only uses 15 Watts, as much as a night light. If I turn the computer completely off, it goes down to around 1 Watt, probably from all the other chargers plugged in.

I only turn off my computer if I'm going to be gone for a couple days. With Vista, I rarely need to reboot, maybe once a month for upgrades.