Energy conservation

It's estimated that one workstation (computer and monitor), if left on after business hours and without automatic power management, produces nearly one ton of carbon dioxide per year. This is five times the amount produced if the workstation is switched off at night and engages power management during idle periods in the day.(1)

Frequent on-off cycles vs. health of the computer hardware: Studies on computer equipment sold after 1998 indicate that there is no appreciable 'wear and tear' from shutting computers off once or twice daily. Most experts state that if a computer is to be left unused for four or more hours, it can be shut down without affecting its lifespan.

The information EZConserve has reviewed indicates that the risk of reducing a computer's useful life by turning it off at night is not the issue that it once was. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory staff note that: [T]he belief that frequent shutdowns are harmful persists from the days when hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off; frequent on-off cycling could damage such hard disks. Conventional wisdom, however, has not kept pace with the rapid technological change in the computer industry. Modern hard disks are not significantly affected by frequent shut-downs. Shutting down computers at night and on weekends saves significant energy without affecting the performance, and may increase (rather than decrease) the operating lifetime of the equipment.

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) states that: It is important to inform users that turning computers off will have no significant effect on their useful lifetimes. This old rule is a remnant of the days when larger hard disks were degraded by the mechanical stress of spinning up and down rapidly. However, today's generation of disks are manufactured to operate normally with 15,000-20,000 on-off cycles in its lifetime; this translates to three on-off cycles every day for over 15 years. Thus, even several on-off cycles per business day will not decrease the useful lifetime of a computer.

Rochester Institute of Technology reported that: Contrary to myths of many years past, the lifetime of computers and monitors are not shortened when they are turned off at the end of each day. In fact, almost all new computer and monitor power supplies have surge suppression built in. Turning off your machine at night will lengthen the life of mechanical components such as disk drives and fans.

Paul Skoczylas wrote:I remember timing my 486-100 once. It could go from full power off to an open Word document in 25 seconds.

S_Leeper wrote:I was also interested in your comment on the expense of leaving on 24/7. There are a few lights around the house that my wife insists on leaving on (& she pays the electric bill). Once I show her that the cost is also around $200/year I hope she'll turn them off nightly.

E.J. Peiker wrote:I've changed all of my bulbs from the standard incandescent bulbs to equivalent lumens flourescent bulbs. It uses about 1/4 of the energy for equivalen light output. the only real downside is the warm-up effect - there is about a second delay in them coming on and they take a minute to come to full brightness.