Leave it on, or turn it off?

This is the question a lot of our clients ask us. What's better, turning off their pc's at night, or leaving them on?  These days, it's simply a matter of preference.  If you don't like the time it takes to boot the computer each day, it is safe to leave your computer on for extended periods of time.  However, we would recommend that you take advantage of the power settings to conserve energy.   The Microsoft Windows operating systems, and most new computers have some type of hibernate or sleep mode that can power down your monitor to about 5 watts of energy and your computer to 2.3 watts.

 Energy Star, a product-labeling program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, supports the practice of configuring computers into a hibernate/sleep mode. 

What is fact and what is fiction:

• Booting up each day uses more energy than leaving it on. False. The small surge of power you use when turning it on, is still lower than the amount you use in keeping it on for lengthy periods.
• Booting up daily wears on the hardware. False. Ten years ago, there was something to this, but it's no longer the case.  Today's PCs are designed to withstand 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, a number you most likely won't reach during the computer's life span.
• Screen savers conserve energy. False. Screen savers, use as little as 42 watts; those with 3D graphics can use as much as 114.5 watts, says Dell's product marketing manager, who does power measurement studies for the PC manufacturer.
• Your computer uses no energy when turned off. That's true only if it is unplugged. Otherwise, your computer is still drawing power.  When a computer is turned off, but still plugged in, it is drawing about 2.3 watts of power, which is the same amount used if your computer were in hibernation.   Monitors use zero energy when turned off.

If you remotely connect to your work computer from home, you won't be able to use the hibernate/sleep power saving setting.  When the computer is hibernating/sleeping you will not be able to access it remotely.

Note: If you decide to leave your computer on all the time, we recommend that you periodically reboot to combat memory leak.

Now that you have the facts, the choice is yours.

If you are one of our service plan clients, leaving your pc's on at night allows us to scan for spyware and install patches and updates.