saving money from turning computer off ...

[rh71]

Does anyone here have any hard figures as to how much money turning a computer off nightly would save them over a month ? I tried doing it this past month, but for some reason, the bill came out MUCH higher than usual (for other reasons, obviously), so I couldn't tell. :|

Does anyone have any $ figures ?

 

[rudeguy]

I didnt know my computer had a power switch....its always too busy to be turned off

 

[iamwiz82]

wattage / 1000 = x kilowatts

x kilowatts * 24hours *30 days = kilowatts hours in a month

y kilowatt hours in a month * your rate of power = the amount that it will cost you to keep an object using x kilowatts per hour

 

[CPA]

Doesn't it take much more kilowatts to start a computer or tv then it does by just keeping it on 24/7.

 

[0roo0roo]

i dunno, but i use all compact flourscent lighting to offset the cost of my pc

 

[edro]

Originally posted by: CPA
Doesn't it take much more kilowatts to start a computer or tv then it does by just keeping it on 24/7.

no

 

[Zim Hosein]

rh71, you should find some hard info here: energystar.gov , I hope it helps

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i dunno, but i use all compact flourscent lighting to offset the cost of my pc

 

[zephyrprime]

Doesn't it take much more kilowatts to start a computer or tv then it does by just keeping it on 24/7.

No. I think this myth must be due to the fact that sometimes it's better to leave a fluorescent light on for an hour or two rather than shut it off becuase the on/off cycle eats about an hour or two of lifetime off of a fluorescent.

Os, here's an estimate of power usage:
assume 150 + 100 watt average power usage. (including the monitor)
assume 7 cents per kilowatt hour

250 watt = .25 kilowatts

0.25KW*24hours*30days*7 cents = $12.6

 

[CPA]

It doesn't include computers, but here are some things that you can do and their relative savings: bankrate.com

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

Doesn't it take much more kilowatts to start a computer or tv then it does by just keeping it on 24/7.

No. I think this myth must be due to the fact that sometimes it's better to leave a fluorescent light on for an hour or two rather than shut it off becuase the on/off cycle eats about an hour or two of lifetime off of a fluorescent.

Actually, to me, the myth came from one of my friend's dad when I was in HS. He used to keep his Mac and TV on all day because of the myth.

 

[Codewiz]

I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

 

[Booster]

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Ha, that's why so many people have hard drive failures here... They never switch them off... Then like... My drive crapped on me after a year.. . Of course it will! It's cheap technology, it can't run 24/7 reliably for a long time.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Booster

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Ha, that's why so many people have hard drive failures here... They never switch them off... Then like... My drive crapped on me after a year.. . Of course it will! It's cheap technology, it can't run 24/7 reliably for a long time.

I leave my computers on 24/7 and never have HDD failures. The Dell next to me at work has a 45GXP and is almost 2 years old. Not to go off topic, but I think that most HDD failures are from overclocking the PCI bus.

Concerned about power usage on your PC? First, don't run any distributed computing. Second, turn your monitor and speakers off when you're not using your computer. At that point, a idle PC shouldn't use much more juice than a 60W light bulb. Just exactly how much power usage varies greatly by specs.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Booster

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Ha, that's why so many people have hard drive failures here... They never switch them off... Then like... My drive crapped on me after a year.. . Of course it will! It's cheap technology, it can't run 24/7 reliably for a long time.

thats not even a myth, its just bad conjecture.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

not to mention thats a piss poor reason to waste power and pollute.


me? i leave my faucet running 24/7 cuz i find it limits wear and tear on the on/off valve

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
rh71, you should find some hard info here: energystar.gov , I hope it helps

But most comps don't go into stand by mode, like mine are running "programs" all the time. so would it be 300W a minute, hr, second???

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: Booster

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Ha, that's why so many people have hard drive failures here... They never switch them off... Then like... My drive crapped on me after a year.. . Of course it will! It's cheap technology, it can't run 24/7 reliably for a long time.

I have only had one model of Western Digital drives fail me. It is a 27gig drive. I went through 3 in one year. The drives just basically sucked. My western digital 10gig, 120gig Maxtor, and server hard drives have been going for a while without problem.

If leaving machines on for 24/7 shortened the life of hard drives then servers would have drives failing ALL the time. My 400mhz server with four 20gig drives has been running on 2 years straight without one failure.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

If gas didn't cost so much and I could secure my car then I would. It just isn't cost effective to leave my car running all the time.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

not to mention thats a piss poor reason to waste power and pollute.


me? i leave my faucet running 24/7 cuz i find it limits wear and tear on the on/off valve

Cry me a damn river.....

Why don't you bitch and moan that the Anandtech servers run 24/7? How about we only have the forum available 8 hours a day so we don't pollute. Give me a damn break......

 

[Mr N8]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

not to mention thats a piss poor reason to waste power and pollute.


me? i leave my faucet running 24/7 cuz i find it limits wear and tear on the on/off valve

...and you never get that dripping faucet, either. Great idea!

 

[FoBoT]

don't ever turn your computers off

never ever never never ever

leave all of them on 24/7365 , cost is not an issue, leave them all on all the time

thank you

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: rh71
Does anyone here have any hard figures as to how much money turning a computer off nightly would save them over a month ? I tried doing it this past month, but for some reason, the bill came out MUCH higher than usual (for other reasons, obviously), so I couldn't tell. :|

Does anyone have any $ figures ?

Depends on what's in your PC, but here's a few pointers:

1. It's less than you would make working in the time it took to flip the switch.
2. It's a hell of a lot less than the time waiting for it to boot is worth.
3. It's less than the amount of wear and tear you put on the drives by spinning them up & down.

Exception to these rules is the monitor. Turning off the monitor when you're not using it does make sense. Turning off the computer does not.

Rough estimate of the cost of leaving on the average modern PC (excluding monitor) 24/7 is between $1 and $5 per month depending on what hardware you're running and the cost per kWh in your area. So turning it off for 8 hours at night would save between $0.33 and $1.67 per month. Even a high end P4 system with a Radeon 9700 and a 10k RPM drive is not gonna consume more than 40W when idle, excluding the monitor.

 

[dullard]

Even a high end P4 system with a Radeon 9700 and a 10k RPM drive is not gonna consume more than 40W when idle, excluding the monitor.

I'm not going to bother with numbers now - I'm just not in the mood. But you need to consider the efficiency of the power supply. If your CPU/everythigng else is consuming 40W, then most likely your power supply is consuming on the order of 70W... Thus you need to nearly double the cost of everything in this thread.

Plus you have to consider if your house is using the heater or the AC. If it is using the heater, the computer power use produces heat which is a savings on your heating bill. So in cold climates turning off your computer in winter won't help much your bills. However the opposite happens in summer where you use the AC. Then for every watt of power your computer produces, your AC must cool another watt. Thus in summer when you use the AC you must increase the costs.