Earlier today we talked about how turning on and off your computer daily will not ruin your hard disk drive. For those more concerned about saving energy than about hard drive failure, I’ll address the question of turning off your computer each night versus leaving it on all of the time.
Should I turn my computer off each night or can I leave it on?
The simple answer is that it’s really up to you. Businesses often leave their computers running all of the time and never turn them off unless something goes wrong. This line of thought is usually based on a model where computers are replaced every two to four years. Home computer users usually don’t need to replace their computers for at least five years (unless you want the latest technology). Either way, computers are pretty sturdy and can handle being left on all of the time, though I recommend using some type of power saving feature. I covered some of the power saving features included with Windows operating systems in a series of blogs a few weeks ago. You can find the first of the series here.
If it won’t hurt the computer to leave it on all of the time, the question then shifts to how much energy does it take to run a computer full-time versus turning it off. The reason why computer users like you and me really care about how much energy computers use is due to the fact that we have to pay the bills. The advent all of these great electronics products has also increased our energy consumption and thus overall amount of money we pay for energy in our homes. Computers aren’t the most greedy electronics component in your home when it comes to energy use, but they can sure pull their weight.
I recommend at least using the “stand by” or “hibernate” feature on your computer if choose not to turn if off overnight. This will both save energy and help lengthen your computer’s life (even it is only by a few days or weeks).
Later today, we’ll see what the Energy Star recommendations are and briefly compare energy usage of the different power saving features in Windows.