19 replies to this topic

[theocello]

I leave my PC on 24/7 because I run a "for gratis" server for a charitable, non-profit organization, but I would do so anyway because I have found, through many years of experience, that I have less problems and have really never noticed any spike in my utility costs.

[Anatolij]

I always turn it off myself.

[dstrout]

theocello, on 07 July 2011 - 05:42 AM, said:

I leave my PC on 24/7 because I run a "for gratis" server for a charitable, non-profit organization, but I would do so anyway because I have found, through many years of experience, that I have less problems and have really never noticed any spike in my utility costs.

Well...You're obviously not going to see spikes if it's on all the time - spikes (or the opposite - dips I guess?) occur when you change the average uptime of your computer. Your computer remains steadily on all the time; thus, your power bill will stay steady.

[rr032]

HI Guys, I normally let the computer go into standby mode , same with the screen, Because I have so much crap running at startup and slow processor etc ect I caln't wait 5 min each time I want to use the damn thing .

[dstrout]

marko, on 06 July 2011 - 11:00 PM, said:

Sleep mode, hibernation and any other form of standby facility will consume power from the mains, the exact amount of which I couldn't say with any certainty, but it stands to reason that unless a machine of any kind is completely powered off it will have to use some power to be in a position to 'resume' from where it left off. Laptops can pull from it's battery power without a main charge when in hibernation but it will only be able to do this for so long before finally loosing it's state when fully discharged.

Actually...wrong. Standby does use power, but hibernation uses no power. The reason for this is that standby stores your computer session in memory, and your memory chips go blank if they lose power. Thus, standby is a low power mode that retains just enough power to keep the session stored in memory intact. Hibernation, on the other hand, writes your session data to the hard disk, which, of course, retains its data even when the computer is turned off completely. That way, hibernation can have the PC completely shut off. That is why it takes longer to enter hibernation than standby and why there is a file in your C: drive called hiberfil.sys that should be the same size as your installed memory. For more info on this, see the Wikipedia hibernation article.

[marko]

I take my hat off to you on that one dstrout, I should have known better with the 'hiberfil' file - you're 100% correct mate

[dstrout]

rr032, on 09 July 2011 - 01:16 AM, said:

HI Guys, I normally let the computer go into standby mode , same with the screen, Because I have so much crap running at startup and slow processor etc ect I caln't wait 5 min each time I want to use the damn thing .

Maybe you should look into eliminating some of the startup crap...or upgrading

[jjj]

Our main computer is left running all day. just goes into standby when not needed, I too cant wait the five minutes for it to bootup.
And. to be pedantic. unless turned off at the power point a computer still uses some power irrespective of what mode it's in, and there
are all those transformers for the speakers, printers.scanners, routers, external Drives all adding to global warming which are seldom disconnected.

[marko]

Hmm, you know jjj, it's been a while since I actually did have a hand in the ole electrical side of IT but the more I think about it the more I'm beginning to wonder. We used to have to use WOL (Wake On Lan) call's to remote machines which were powered down/hibernated, etc, so I guess it stands to reason that power must be getting used somewhere on a computer for a remote WOL command to work. Here's a guy on YouTube talking about this very thing ...

[James (Jim) Hillier]

Well I don't leave peripherals (printer, speakers, etc.) turned on at all, only when I need to use them.

One thing that does need to be pointed out here: In 'shutdown' state a desktop computer is still consuming power, and the difference in power consumption between shutdown state and hibernation or sleep mode is so minor as to be completely negligible.

The only way a desktop computer will consume zero power is to switch it off completely, either via a PSU switch or at the power point.

So, when we say "switch off" we are talking about completely switching off and not merely using the "Shut down" option in Windows.

Another point for consideration: We do not completely turn off other electronic entertainment devices such as TVs, DVD players, home theater equipment, etc. When we click the power button on the remote control, those devices stay in stand-by (or readiness) mode and are still consuming a small amount of power.

Also, in terms of power usage in the average household, the home computer would be very at the very bottom of the power consumption chain.

Not debating one way or the other here, just putting forward some observations for consideration.