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| Frugal Questions and Answers Frugal ideas and questions. The place to learn how to get those costs down. |
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03-24-2008, 02:48 PM
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Ever leave your PC on?
Do any of you ever leave your PC on? or the monitor ON?
I was wondering if it spikes up the energy bill. I really can't tell cause i just pay but I am starting to wonder. 
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03-24-2008, 02:56 PM
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I don't leave my PCs on. It wastes energy and needlessly reduces the life of the PC.
If you're running services on the PC (like a web site), obviously you'll need to leave it on, but at least turn off the monitor -- that's usually the bigger energy hog of the two.
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03-24-2008, 03:01 PM
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I don't.
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03-24-2008, 03:05 PM
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Yeah well i think i;ve had my PC on for months. and maybe the monitor for weeks. But I think i will power OFF the monitor
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03-24-2008, 05:30 PM
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I have been told by my (very few) frugal friends, that powering down your computer at night does in fact save on the electric bill.
However, I cannot get the techies (sp?) in my house to power down at night. Apparently the start up wait is SUCH a hassle (rolls eyes)
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03-24-2008, 06:18 PM
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I do, but its for a very strange reason. On my computer, I have only access to a user account because a normal adminstrator account doesn't allow certain parental controls. Basically every time the computer turns on, I need the administrator password to run my internet filter because it is an administrator program. If I can't provide the administrator password, then the filter won't run and hence the internet is unavailable. I can't know the administrator password because that would give me access to change parental controls in vista. The administrator password is kept by my girl friend, so if the computer powers down after my girl friend has typed the password in, I can't go on the internet until she returns. So basically, I blame porn for the extra power cost!
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03-24-2008, 06:44 PM
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JC, you have a strange setup. May I suggest Linux? 
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03-24-2008, 07:54 PM
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Quote:
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03-24-2008, 09:43 PM
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As to saving the life of the pc as a reason to turn it off, its actually a highly debated topic as turning the pc on for a cold boot causes stress on the hardware as well. With todays long hardware life but short shelf life, chances are your pc would be outdated long before the major components fail due to keeping it running or turning it on from a cold boot. Ive heard that leaving it on overnight for a month costs about $2.50 per month
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03-24-2008, 10:19 PM
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I turn off the computer, printer, monitor when I am done, and if I remember, pull the plug on the router as well. Those pretty blinking green lights cost electricity too! I also have been turning off the power strip to the TV/cable/etc. My highest electric bill was $89 in September (from August's air conditioning), and I got that all the way down to $17.63 in December.
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03-25-2008, 10:30 AM
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Can I ask those who feel a computer uses no real electricity to turn it off for a minute..then listen...the sound of silence, do you really think all that racket your computer is making is free? Do this with the TV and radio and dishwasher and dryer off (and kids out) of course..those others do make more noise.
Ask your techie to check the core temperature and explain to you just how the computer keeps from overheating (a fan plus heat sink at least-heat sink is free, fan is not) and while we are on the subject, just how does that core get hot anyway? electricity folks. the kind you pay to pipe in to the house. And if your Techie has a fancy led lighted case, or any other 'cool' add ons trust me, he/she is running more electricity than needed. Not that I plan on disconnecting the green light from my case  It looks cool IMO you own the house you pay the electric bill, either charge a fee for leaving it on over night or turn it off yourself (no tech geek wants mom/wife/GF to turn their computer off by just pushing the power button and holding for a count of 10...do it once they will NEVER leave it on for you to fix again!) Oh and for the start up time if they can't fill it then assign a chore..one that takes about 2 minutes (empty dishwasher) I usually switch laundry or fetch my water in that time. I can guarantee if someone offered to find me work to do in that time I would stop complaining about it .JC your solution works for your addiction, the electric cost is a small price to pay to work on getting better.
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03-25-2008, 11:37 AM
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PennyPrincess, for dealing with the techies in your house, I would just have them adjust the power properties for the computer such that when the system is unused for 1 or 2 hours (however long is appropriate for you), it will automatically turn off the monitor, turn off the hard disk, or totally shut down (you can normally adjust all of these options separately). It would still cause it to stay on for a little while after they finish, but it'll at least catch those hours in the middle of the night that nobody's even around it, and thus save at least some of the power consumption.
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03-25-2008, 12:11 PM
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We tend to leave one computer on all day, because we use it often (short spurts). Much better than turning it on/off ten times a day.
That one, we turn the monitor off though when not in use. & we do turn it off at night or if we know we won't use it for a long period of time. We have experimented and it really doesn't make a difference on our electric bill. The point being it is not on all that much more than it would be on anyway. (Obviously if we only used it 5 minutes a day and it was left on all day, that would make a difference). As far as reducing the life of the PC? Not exactly a concern of mine (not sure we have ever had to replace a computer because we wore it out, and believe me we keep computers forever. Talking decades).
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03-25-2008, 12:34 PM
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For everyday users, it may be easiest to just set the energy saver feature (such as monitor off after 1 hour and automatic power shut down in 2 hours). For me though, I don't use the power-save feature. If my computer has to stay on, it's staying on for a reason.
Instead, I have everything hooked up to a power strip that is controlled by a wall light switch. This includes my modem and router; two items that often gets overlooked and is left on all the time. So, when I come home, I turn everything on with a flick of a switch. When I go to bed, I turn everything off. When I'm home and not planning to use it soon, I just put the computer on standby. Locks the computer and saves energy at the same time. Recovery is also much quicker than a cold boot. Power saving also depends on what kind of hardware you have. If you have a fancy computer with a larger monitor, it will draw more power (sometimes as much as a microwave left running) than it will if you just have a small laptop or something similar. Lastly, I don't really know what my power saving is. While power saving is nice, it's not actually the primary reason for my setup. You see, I'm a security freak.... Last edited by Broken Arrow : 03-25-2008 at 02:14 PM.
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03-25-2008, 12:58 PM
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Great ideas everyone, thanks, I do appreciate it. Every little bit helps!
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03-27-2008, 06:58 PM
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Hard Disk Drives have a MTBF (mean time between failure) that is rated in terms of the number of hours : HDD Technology Overview Charts This is of course barring power surges and failures. This technology has also been improving over the years, and the MTBF now is much longer than it has been say 10 years ago. Ultimately, we do not keep the computers powered on, (not so much because of electricity costs -- we pay $40/month for both water and power), but more for the fact that someone else mentioned: the noise factor is a big one (my ears are too sensitive though DH cannot hear the computers, I certainly can). If a computer is connected to the Internet 100% of the time (cable or DSL), then security can also be an issue with leaving the computer on. Disconnect the computer from the Internet if you're going to leave it on and set it defragging. I always advise people to turn off their computers when they are not doing anything for 30 minutes or more. Clearing the cache (memory) is usually a good thing too.
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03-27-2008, 07:09 PM
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Hibernate actually saves what you are working on, onto the hard disk drive of your computer. Then it shuts down the computer. Standby just holds the information and shuts power to some of the peripherals (monitor, hard drive, network card, etc) and thus is using less power. You could lose some info if you suffer a power failure and have no battery backup (UPS on a desktop or batteries in a laptop).
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03-27-2008, 07:36 PM
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I completely agree with the statement regarding the difference between hibernate and standby....
Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of luck with Hibernate myself. XP's implementation, at least on my PC, is buggy as crap. There have been times where it won't shutdown. There are times when it will shutdown and then it won't boot up right. And don't even get me started with people who uses it at work. I just tell them to avoid. In my personal opinion, it's much easier to practice basic computing hygiene, which is to save all your work, and maybe even implement incremental backup procedure before putting the computer on standby. Standby has worked flawless for me so far, on both desktops and laptops. So, that's what I use.
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