What uses more energy? Keeping a computer on all day or turning it on and off throughout the day when you use it? I have heard it uses less power to just keep it on all day but I have no proof of it. Does anyone know?

 

Keeping a computer on all day

 

keeping on, use more energy, ~4-6 bucks/mo if you let it run 24/7

 

electrical parts uses no energy when turned off and the power cable is unplugged from the wall. when they are on, they use energy, even in sleep mode.

so i dont know where you heard that is uses less energey when you just keep it on all day, but that is just wrong.


what you may have heard is that it's bette for the electrical connections if you leave it on all day instead of turning it on and off through out the day. This is true to an extent. There was a study done while back (before the web was popular so no link for you kids) that showed you can turn cycle your computer upto 5 times a day (full power off then on) and it didn't effect the longevity of the computer. that doesn't mean it will last longer either, but do it more than 5 times a day and it shorteden the life time of the computer.

 

more like 10-20/month.

specially when you are running a big ass server like I do.

 

Thanks for the info Rick. I think the extent of what I heard was that although while the comp being on all day it used power, the act of turning the computer on and having it boot up used more power in that couple of minutes (a few times a day) than if the comp was left on all day. The person was probably talking out of their ass though.

 

i leave my pc on. just turn off monitor when i'm not using it. monitor is what uses most of the electricity.

 

Sounds like someone is relating the allowing a car idle for 5 minutes vs. turning it off to the use of electricity in a computer. Gas =/= Electricity.

 

Well there is also the bit of time at first power up where a pc, well really just about all electrical devices do, that it pulls up to 150% of it's normal power within the first... 2-5 seconds.

You may notice this with cheaper light bulbs, they come on REALLY bright for a second and then level out.

But really how much more will that cost you? Maybe a few cents per month.

Also need to take into consideration, boot time. For you, the computer is unable to be used durring the boot process. So, in a way, it's wasted time and electricity. If your pc takes (counting boot up and shut down times) 1-2 mins between being useable and off... figure in how many times per day you reboot. Lets say 5. That's 5-10mins easy of wasted time and energy.

Do that every day, well you get the idea.

I leave mine on all the time. I usually don't shut them down unless I'm going away for more than 3 days.

Monitor I'll turn off if I'm not going to be at the pc for more than 1hour. No screen saver needed. Waste of cpu cycles and just encourages you to leave the monitor on, using even more electricity and wasted cpu useage.