You Computer - do u turn it off or leave it on?

@saundyl (9783)
Canada
April 10, 2008 4:05pm CST
I know theres many schools of thought on wether its good for you pc or not to turn it off after each use or better for it to be left on all the time...or worse. What do you guys think? What do you do? I'm of the opinion that its better power usage wise to have it turned off when i'm not home. If i'm home i'll turn it on and leave it on the entire time i'm home so i can use it without waiting for it to start up. I do think that leaving it on 24/7 isnt the best for it as the fans and moving parts in the hard drive would wear out somewhat faster...as well as the extra heat produced by the pc isn't that great of it either My laptop i allow to hibernate rather than turning it right off unless its going to be out of use for more than a 8 hours.
7 people like this
51 responses
• United States
10 Apr 08
a computer thats off, uses just as much energy as a computer that is in sleep mode or hibernating, about 5 watts an hour. a computer thats on but idle, uses anywhere from 60 to 100 watts an hour. ill assume the national average is about 10 cents per kilowatthour, because prices range from 5 to 16 cents nationally. 5W/1000KW= .005KW .005KW* $.10 per KWh= $.0005 per hour leaving it on but idle (not in use) uses 60 to 100, so we will use 100 for the sake of accuracy. 100W/1000KW= .1KW .1KW* $.10 per KWh= $.01 per hour now lets assume you dont use your computer for 16 hours every day, meaning you do use it 8 hours a day. off/asleep/hibernating: $.0005* 16= $.008, .008* 30 (days per month)= $.24 per month. on but idle: .01* 16= $.16, $.16* 30= $4.80 per month turning it off when its not in use, saves you $4.56 a month. not very much. id prefer to pay that and have the convenience of not turning it on and waiting when i want to use it. also ive heard the initial voltage of turning it on is much higher, and could be potentially damaging to your hardware, plus if you turn it on and off a lot, its possible, though unlikely, that your savings would be null.
2 people like this
@cbjcink (147)
• Japan
11 Apr 08
Yeah I agree turning the computer on and off damages the hardware.. which means shortens the life of the computer. I always leave my computer on but I turn off the monitor :) Normal Monitors consume about 75wats while LCD Monitors use about 20-30wats depends on the size.
1 person likes this
• United States
11 Apr 08
ive had a mother board and processor crap out on me too, but it was because of the power company where i live. we have, very commonly, spikes in voltage, usually the lights flicker and all the clocks get reset. ive been told that this is because when a branch or something falls on the lines, instead of sending a crew out, they just zap it off. i dont think this is true, but its what ive heard. anyway, leaving your computer on wont make your motherboard or processor short out, its a voltage spike that will. if you have it hooked up to a surge protector you should be good, personally i use an UPS, uninterrupted power supply, its from APC and it has a battery. when the voltage changes too much (you set the preferences) it switches to battery power to keep stability, and if power should go out for more than 10 minutes, i have it set to automatically hibernate my computer via a usb plug. depending on what you have plugged into it, the charge will last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. it was like $70 and if anything goes wrong while you have it hooked up to the UPS, they will replace all your equipment up to $200k or so.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
makes alot of sense. My savings in leaving my pc off is NOT having to replace another motherboard and processor because it shorted while i wasnt home.
1 person likes this
• Belgium
10 Apr 08
i always turn my pc off not just for the power usage but for the extreme heat my computer generates. and why oh why does ur pc has to be on all the for the couple of minutes it takes to start i think the 'lag' ur pc makes takes longer. and ofcours it's not good for your pc to stay on all time some parts ( i think) can burn.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
Some parts can burn yes! and the smell is NASTY. My laptop puts off a ton of heat I try not to leave it on too long (hibernation it doesnt put off heat) I also try not to leave things like phones next to the fan vent of my laptop because they get extra hot.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
11 Apr 08
I've been thinking about cooling pads for my laptop, but when I started looking I found out most of them are USB powered! Doesn't that defeat the purpose of cooling your laptop when the fans actually add extra load to your machine? Now I just turn the air conditioning on when I use my laptop so the heat won't shorten its life.
@g3n3j0rd (721)
• Philippines
11 Apr 08
why don't you get a cooling pad for your laptop? it will lessen the heat.
@palina77 (1177)
• United States
11 Apr 08
i always turn my off
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
11 Apr 08
My PC stays on all the time, as I have a research programme running on it 24/7. However, there are times that it has to be switched off for a while, after updates, when the screen freezes or during disconnection, through no fault of my own. Brightest Blessings.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 Apr 08
i hate it when my computer freezes.
2 people like this
@Darkwing (21583)
12 Apr 08
Me too, especially when I've opened a lot of e-mail alerts from Mylot and trashed the e-mails. I can never find them again!
2 people like this
• New Zealand
11 Apr 08
I'm not sure one way or the other what is best for the PC but I always turn mine off at night for the power saving. I wouldn't turn it off after every use though because it's so old that I think Noah used it to keep track of the animals. lol
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
• Vietnam
11 Apr 08
yes, i cant understand thing you write
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@wisedragon (2325)
• Philippines
11 Apr 08
I place it on standby mode if I'm planning to use it again after a few minutes. Otherwise I would turn it off. I hate wasting electricity.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@ferdzNK (3211)
• Philippines
10 Apr 08
Hi saundyl, If my programs needs it YES I leave it on. Most long process applications like system wide virus check, defrag, video conversion has auto shutdown any way. Lately I'm in to Torrent so I hardly turned it off, I just make sure that my external peripherals monitor, speaker, printer/scanner are off.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
makes sense to leave it on for the various lengthy programs, ive done that before. (i'm not into torrents as they take forever to get on dialup)
1 person likes this
@marababe (2503)
• Philippines
11 Apr 08
Here at home, we turn off the computer after we use it. That's like after almost 24 hours. LOL. We don't really leave it on 24/7 cos yeah, like you said, the fans and other devices might wear out. But after I use it, I don't turn it off immediately cos my brother's next or vice versa. Haha! We turn it off when we're off to sleep. Cheers!
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@nice030481 (1109)
• Philippines
11 Apr 08
here at the office, i never turnoff my computer until i out at 5pm. then in the morning i turn it onn at 8 am. i never turn it off even break time. but in our house, we always turn the computer if we ddnt use it.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
11 Apr 08
my work computer gets turned on and off all day. I have to attach and detach harddrives checking for viruses or checking disks and its safer for the drives to have the system powered off when plugging and unplugging bits and peices. Over night it tends to stay on. The server at work stays on 24/7.
1 person likes this
@Esoteric1 (863)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
That's a good question and I'm no expert, but ... Personally I leave mine on almost 24/7. My last pc was on 24/7 for the last 3 years I was using it, I have a new one now, but the other one still works perfectly fine. I don't mean to say leaving it on is better as I do not know that as fact. It does however save you from booting it up all the time and I do find it to be a smoother ride in general. Nowadays fans are built well the last long and can easily be replaced should the need arise. as for hard drives and other components, they have power saving features that allow you to set when things turn off like hard drives and monitors even the ram and your fans can be adjusted in power save mode. the heat should not be that much of an issue if your computer is idle and not under load. If heating is an issue I would suggest a better cooling solution, I myself just bought an extra 120mm intake fan and replaced my stock HSF for a cooler master hyper XT something or other :P now if anything my pc which is a quad core and is on almost all the time and has been on for the past 96 hours feels more like a refrigerator.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
I'm bad for buying new parts fr my computers I'm always finding cool toys for it. I got some new fans for inside the computer and a nice new 400 watt power supply after the fans quit in the psu. Heats not too much of an issue with the computer except I like to keep anything that puts off any heat off as much as possible during the summer as i dont have AC in my house and it gets a tad bit roasty toasty some days. You have a quad core??? I'm sooo very jealous (its on my lists of i wants for computers - my friend laughs at me cause theres alwyas something neat we bring in i'm drooling over)
1 person likes this
@jesbellaine (4139)
• Philippines
10 Apr 08
I usually turn it off especially when I am not using it because my parents will really complain! They are afraid that if we leave our electrical or electronic devices "on", it will be the cause of fire or shortage. lolz.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
my parents used to make us turn the computer off when ever we werent using it.
1 person likes this
@RedX922 (143)
• Romania
10 Apr 08
when i go to bed i turn my computer off...i don't leave my computer 24/24 for 7/7 i leave it on only when my team have a project and they need my server for testing their scripts...
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
that makes sense
1 person likes this
• Brunei Darussalam
11 Apr 08
it better if we turn it off when we don't use it..if you leave it on..maybe it cause computer burn..saving our electricity use..
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
12 May 08
Thank you for responding.
1 person likes this
@Sir_bobby88 (8231)
• Singapore
2 May 08
Well normally i will turn it off when i am not using my computer , sometimes i will leave it on because of transfer photos to my friends yea .
1 person likes this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
2 May 08
Thanks for responding.
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
I never turn my pc off. It doesnt even get rebooted very often. it runs pretty smoothly without rebooting often.. i dunno why. but i like it that way! hehe. maybe cause we dont install and uninstall a bunch of crud ;) I think most of the time when it gets rebooted its because windows updated and it needs to be rebooted.
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
When i lived in the city I left my computer on ALL the time until i went away for the weekend and came home to a melted motherboard and the smell of burnt plastic.
1 person likes this
@jstaubin (423)
• United States
10 Apr 08
I leave my computer running but I do shut off my monitor when I not using my computer. It helps to save on the elctric bill just a little.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
10 Apr 08
I tend to forget to push the power button on the monitor...will have to remember to do that now. Thanks for reminding me.
1 person likes this
• South Africa
12 Apr 08
At the moment where I live there is an "energy crisis" where 2-3 times a week we are becoming "previously lit areas". What I'm trying to say is that there is not much electricity to go around and so I shut down my pc when I am not using it, especially since it is not uncommon for the power to go out altogether and when that happens I would rather have shut down first. But even though I say that, if I'm just going to leave it for a short while I often leave it on and just turn off the monitor.
1 person likes this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
13 Apr 08
previously lit area? do they cut off the power or does it just fail?
• South Africa
13 Apr 08
They cut it for about 4 hours at a time and call it load shedding. I just call it previously lit as a play on the whole "previously disadvantaged" politically correct way of saying things.
1 person likes this
• Romania
1 May 08
i also leave it on because..i think that i shut down and restarts the computer i think that will consumes more battery :)).
1 person likes this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
1 May 08
A laptop? thanks for responding.
@Samsta (31)
1 May 08
I usually put my laptop into Hibernate mode, this saves what you are doing to the hard drive, and then powers the computer off. It uses no electricity, and the computer turns on quicker than if you turned it off normally.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
1 May 08
I agree they do start up faster when you hibernate them.