If You Don't Turn Your Computer Off, Who Will?

I have one computer I leave on constantly. It's a Mac Mini that serves as a web server, VNC & SSH portal, print server, and fax machine. Currently, it's also using spare CPU cycles to run calculations for ClimatePrediction.net, and draws, on average, 60 watts, as verified by a Kill-A-Watt.

Am I a bad person for leaving this computer on?

"Am I a bad person for leaving this computer on?"

As with everything, it's a "use your judgment" call (though it's not about "bad persons" in the first place...).

In your case, your computer seems to be used and not just sitting idle (and for climateprediction.net too! Good choice), and it's drawing about 3-4 times less power than the average PC (200-240 watts).

If your electricity comes from green sources on top of that, you've got a pretty good setup IMHO.

This is a behavioral change that needs to happen at the user level, not just the utilities. We've been running a "Computer Shutdown Friday" campaign at IDEO for a while now, and the same can be done at any company. Here's the email that goes out just before every weekend or holiday:

SUBJECT: CSF (Computer Shutdown Friday)

What impact does leaving your machine on over the weekend have? That’s the question we asked (and then answered) last May, which turned into an experiment we’ve been running ever since. Here’s what we found:

Your avg IDEO machine in standby mode (laptop or desktop) consumes about as much energy as a 40 watt bulb. In Palo Alto, we have 104 macs (mostly laptops) and 222 PCs (evenly desktop/laptop) in PA. A Friday 5pm to Monday 9am impact is:

832kwh will be used
2255 lbs or CO2 will be pumped into the air *
666 lbs. of coal will be burned**
$103.17 will be spent***

Q: Doesn’t this wear out my hard disk?
A: No. In the old days, yes, but this legacy thinking no longer applies. Current laptop models spin down and spin up several times a day during normal operation.

Q: Can’t I just turn off my monitor?
A: No. Turn them both off. Flat panel displays, which are becoming standard, consume much less energy that your CPU.

The idea is to offer and immediate element of control over our energy consumption. Computers certainly aren’t the biggest source of energy use (note: it’s HVAC), but this is a good start. Not only that, we found it to be a tipping point. Taking the time to shutdown your computer allows time to turn off task light, other peripherals, and even recycle. Altogether, it only takes a minute or so, but unless that minute is there with green being top of mind, it doesn’t happen.

Ideally, this isn’t limited to Fridays. I hope people will find how little time it takes to start up in the morning (while eating a bagel and drinking coffee) and shutdown every day. And I hope leaving your computer on is equated with leaving the water running while brushing your teeth, because it’s worse.

In the meantime, we’ll find out this has been affecting on our energy bill when we complete our audit.

Yes Icelander, you're computer is 1 of the better options for a 24hr machine - do you know how much the KillAWatt reads when climateprediction isn't running?

An interesting stat I heard recently was that a human requires approximately 100 Watts continously to stay alive. So that little Mac in the corner could almost be thought of as another half-a-human that you have to look after!

There are still some problems with turning off pc's. Since most businesses run Windows they need some time to run virus scans at night, users who shut down their pc's when they leave often complain about slowdowns during the day and these are usually traced to the AV program running its scan.
Also since Microsoft still can't get power management working perfectly letting the computer suspend itsself after a while usually doesn't work right unless you have closed out of all programs and then waking it back up works about 90% of the time (funny how it works in Linux just fine). Until some of these problems get fixed (or people start switching to better OS's) then people will keep disabeling the power management.

hello, im new here. im not concerned much about the green or power saving or anything. all i want to know is, if i dont shut down my PC's before i go to sleep and keep it running for weeks, will it affect my battery life or the laptop itself. I mean, im trying to expand my laptop life and at the same time trying to utilize it to the maximum. sorry, im new in this so called pc world thing.

Yes leaving your laptop on all the time will definitely shorten your battery life. at approx. $119.00 a battery that can get expensive. Batteries are rated for Charge/Discharge cycles. They tell you each battery should last "x" amount of time based off of normal use. Normal use is not leaving it on all the time. If you do leave it on though, use "deep sleep" settings such as hibernation in Windows. This shuts down everything even the hard disks.

I am here due to me wanting to go more green in my life. I never really thought about it until I have had 2 children and met a friend who is green. I guess my question I would pose to non-greeners; "Why not?"

Thanks for the read,

Robert

Yes leaving your laptop on all the time will definitely shorten your battery life. at approx. $119.00 a battery that can get expensive. Batteries are rated for Charge/Discharge cycles. They tell you each battery should last "x" amount of time based off of normal use. Normal use is not leaving it on all the time. If you do leave it on though, use "deep sleep" settings such as hibernation in Windows. This shuts down everything even the hard disks.

I am here due to me wanting to go more green in my life. I never really thought about it until I have had 2 children and met a friend who is green. I guess my question I would pose to non-greeners; "Why not?"

Thanks for the read,

Robert