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How often do you turn off your computer.
- Thread starter tnsxsear
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If you turn it off, you'll save electricity and the planet at the same time. Maybe others will disagree, but I think that if you're not using it, turning it off is a great option. I used to leave mine on all the time, but I think that turning it off would be a fine idea.
Sleeping the computer uses very little electricity. Starting up a computer cold can be stressful on the electronics, so I wouldn't be surprised if sleeping was better for the planet in the long run. (Which is to say, the cost of electricity used while sleeping over time would be less than the resources needed to make a new computer when the old one gets fried due to the repeated stresses of starting up cold all the time.)
--Eric
--Eric
But how 'warm' does a computer stay whilst sleeping? I've also never heard of a Mac dying because of this, although I have heard about the 'stress on the electronics' before.
I have heard that turning on a computer uses more energy then having it sleep all night.
So if you use it every day, then you should sleep it.
But if you are going away for the weekend you might want to shut it down.
That is what I do.
So if you use it every day, then you should sleep it.
But if you are going away for the weekend you might want to shut it down.
That is what I do.
I really don't know what works out to more or less wasted energy.
But I do know that my imac starts up VERY quickly and the power supply can use no more than about 300 watts (?) max-out in that short space of time. I also guess that only the hard-drive and memory is really being stressed that much so the power used in that 10-20 seconds must be pretty low. I'd be surprised is leaving it on sleep all night uses less - but I don't know.
P.S. I turn mine off when I'm not using it - but often leave it on if I plan to return to it in a few hours.
I tend to sleep my iMac a lot and very rarely shut down or even restart (although when system updater finds something, I can't avoid doing it!). I've had no problems at all with sleeping my iMac and I love the responsiveness of the machine when it comes out of sleep.
I read somewhere that the iMacs use around 2 watts when sleeping. Thats .024 KWHrs when sleeping for 12 hours. Assuming it uses the full 300watts when starting up for 20 seconds that would be 0.00167 KWHrs. Sleeping uses more power.
The only time I turn off my PB is when it's getting slow or when the breathing sleep light starts to annoy me 
I sleep mine unless I'm away for a longer period than a couple of days. I do the same with my G4 and its 4 yrs old. I have seen no ill effects from doing this. I also like that it starts up almost immediately and is ready to go. I hate waiting for 30 seconds while the thing starts up. I'm so fed up using the windoze machine at work, I just want to get busy when I get home!
Mick
Mick
Threads like this only reminds me that no one really knows. Everyone has 'heard' this, or 'think' that.
Me? I just sleep it, because I have used it everyday since I got mine. Nearly 11 days uptime now.
Apple's instructions are to sleep your Mac unless you're going to be away for more than a few days, so that's what I do.
Me? I just sleep it, because I have used it everyday since I got mine. Nearly 11 days uptime now.
Apple's instructions are to sleep your Mac unless you're going to be away for more than a few days, so that's what I do.
It's common sense really, What I do is if I'm not using it then I shut it down. I heard that it stresses out the Electronics but does it really matter if you have AppleCare? + you can always sell it for almost more then 50% of what it originally cost.
From a Google Search.....
You have a computer like in iMac G5 20", which uses about 105 watts, and you're smart enough to turn it off when you're not using it. You use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That's ten hours a week, or 520 hours a year. So your 105 watts times 520 hours = 54,600 watt-hours. Divide by 1000 and you have 55 kilowatt-hours (kWh). If you're paying 10¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you're paying $5.50 a year to run your computer.
That's quite a range, $5.50 to $405 a year. It really depends on how much you use your computer, what kind of computer it is, and how much you pay for electricity. I used to have only one example somewhere in the middle but then I'd see people on blogs and messageboards misquoting it by writing, "Mr. Electricity says a computer costs about $150/yr. to run" No, that is not what I said. I said that with the particular set of assumptions I used, the computer system cost that much to run. Your situation is almost certainly different, and you need to consider all the variables, most especially how much you use the computer, what kind it is, and how much you pay for electricity.
It's a myth that it takes more energy to start a computer than to keep it running. It doesn't. You'll always save energy by turning your computer off when you're not using it. If that's inconvenient you can always use the sleep or standby mode. And no, you won't wear your computer out any faster by cycling it once a day, or even a few times a day. Modern computers aren't that fragile. I did hardware troubleshooting at Apple, I know what I'm talking about.
You have a computer like in iMac G5 20", which uses about 105 watts, and you're smart enough to turn it off when you're not using it. You use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That's ten hours a week, or 520 hours a year. So your 105 watts times 520 hours = 54,600 watt-hours. Divide by 1000 and you have 55 kilowatt-hours (kWh). If you're paying 10¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you're paying $5.50 a year to run your computer.
That's quite a range, $5.50 to $405 a year. It really depends on how much you use your computer, what kind of computer it is, and how much you pay for electricity. I used to have only one example somewhere in the middle but then I'd see people on blogs and messageboards misquoting it by writing, "Mr. Electricity says a computer costs about $150/yr. to run" No, that is not what I said. I said that with the particular set of assumptions I used, the computer system cost that much to run. Your situation is almost certainly different, and you need to consider all the variables, most especially how much you use the computer, what kind it is, and how much you pay for electricity.
It's a myth that it takes more energy to start a computer than to keep it running. It doesn't. You'll always save energy by turning your computer off when you're not using it. If that's inconvenient you can always use the sleep or standby mode. And no, you won't wear your computer out any faster by cycling it once a day, or even a few times a day. Modern computers aren't that fragile. I did hardware troubleshooting at Apple, I know what I'm talking about.
I have PCs but I am looking at macs
I usually just hibernate mine which is where it is from my understanding basically off, it has to reload the bios when it boots also. It just saves the RAM info to the swap section of the harddrive then transfers it back to RAM as you reboot.
Like shutting down but with faster boot ups
I usually just hibernate mine which is where it is from my understanding basically off, it has to reload the bios when it boots also. It just saves the RAM info to the swap section of the harddrive then transfers it back to RAM as you reboot.
Like shutting down but with faster boot ups
Say what, you can actually turn a Mac off
Seriously though I never turn any of my computers off unless I go away for more than a week same goes for my external drives.
Seriously though I never turn any of my computers off unless I go away for more than a week same goes for my external drives.
Sleep your computer and replace a few incandescent light bulbs with low power fluorescent bulbs to more than make up for the computer's miniscule power usage. That's what I've done.
I reboot mine about once a week when it seems sluggish. Otherwise, it's on or asleep all of the time.
I reboot mine about once a week when it seems sluggish. Otherwise, it's on or asleep all of the time.
Doesn't the mac run various daily/weekly/monthly scripts every night around 2am? I believe this helps clean out OSX, much like Onyx, and keep everything in proper working order.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think I am. I think putting the computer to sleep or shutting it off disrupts these scripts from running. It does, however save energy and money.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think I am. I think putting the computer to sleep or shutting it off disrupts these scripts from running. It does, however save energy and money.
I do distributed computing (Folding@Home, SETI@Home, Climate Prediction, and a few others - 12 programs in total, and it doesn't slow my machine down at all, even though I have a few set to run even when I'm using the computer instead of just during idle time), so I leave my iMac on all the time. I sleep the display when I'm not using it. Before I started with distributive computing, I would just put the iMac to sleep. I like my computer to just be ready when I am. I think the potential benefits derived from the CPU cycles I donate to research outweigh any environmental "moral" problems I may have with using the extra electricity. But that's just me.
But that's just me.