Do you turn off your PC when you aren't using it?

DBT85 · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:17

NachT said:
Just to throw this in as people are talking about bills etc.

I don't live with parents, and pay my own bills. But from my experience switching the PC off when not in use only saves me about £5 a month. I'd continue to switch it off when not in use if I was saving about £12+ a month, but this isn't this case for me.

I do have a watt meter, and the PC, while on a game, takes about 600 - 700W, on the desktop it uses about 300W, if I can remember right.

Then something must be awry with your sums or you are on your machine almost all day every day.

At 15p per kwh 100w costs you 1.5p per hour.
Thats 36p per day
and thats £131 per year just for 100w.

If you turned off at the wall for 8 hours a day (not an unreasonable amount considering sleep and work) then you'd save 1/3 of that cost. So £43 a year.

The only other thing I can think of is that when the machine is off you are using something else more which is sapping the juice.

TheGedi · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:39

My Case came with a Blue LED fan which at night is way to bright to sleep with it on. So i dont download at night

So its Off at night and during the day if i have nothing to download.

2-step · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:43

coopersim · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:12

Sleep it whenever I walk away from it, it's the tight wad in me thinking of saving power...

Guitarman0 · 31 Jan 2011 at 23:09

Sleep during the day, shut down at night.

LaurenceGough · 31 Jan 2011 at 23:50

I turn mine off if I'm not coming back in like 20 mins or so.

I don't even pay the bills but I see no reason to keep equipment on for no reason.

Anything less than 20 mins is just wear and tear...

DragonQ · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:27

Todge said:
I do love seeing those calcs. It really brings home just how much you can save just by turning stuff off.

Yeah, this is how I found out.

I don't actually pay for electricity (uni accommodation) but I don't like the thought of needlessly using that much electricity when I don't need it. I plan to build a 24/7 file server in the future but it'll probably be a Bobcat or similar PC so will (hopefully) use very little power.

Syx · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:43

I leave my PC on all the time, and have a DL360 in the garage that obviously doesn't have an "off" mode. My last electricity statement was £80 for just over 2 months - so I can't really complain... and don't see a need to turn stuff off!

Skellig · 1 Feb 2011 at 10:33

Turn it off

Combination of gf and paying my own bills...

scubes · 1 Feb 2011 at 14:03

i turn mine off when i goto bed for fourty winks ...lol

inogen · 1 Feb 2011 at 14:20

I only ever turn mine off if I'm leaving the house overnight.

No sleep, no hibernate. Though I have constructed a button on the taskbar to send the monitors into standby using nircmd.

jamesfreddie · 6 Feb 2011 at 12:26

Turn it off

lolwithtim · 6 Feb 2011 at 15:08

I always turn my PC off when I go to sleep or go out for awhile.

Sometimes if I need to charge up my phone overnight I will keep my netbook on and put it in the corner, a lot quieter, lol.