Other On or Off

[IamJudd]

In a household that has two kids under three, turning off everything at the main power button or plug is something I try to do most of the time.
I've seen many threads that imply that a lot of you leave your 'puters on constantly.
My question is thus -
Does the running cost of spinning up a pc from cold equal the running cost of leaving it in a sleep state?
With SSDs being so widespread and quick, is there any point to leaving the computer on?

Ta in advance

[longweight]

I very much doubt that it saves energy by leaving it in sleep mode, I turn my PC off every night.

[IamJudd]

Same - I should be receiving the new components today for my new build. The NAS storage linked in another post looks like something I'd like to do but I was looking for the bear minimum of power draw for it.

[longweight]

If I had a NAS network box I would leave it on as it will draw so little power.

[MSHunter]

If mail in rebate is still active then HP Micro server is cheaper then NAS. If not then for the same price you can build an E-350 based media server.
http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/08...cf8a3477574499

Case has 6 HDD bay.

[reggie50]

I don't think there will be much difference in the cost purely because a sleeping computer doesn't use much power (but it will use some).

I put my pc into sleep overnight, so that it boots quicker in the morning, but when I go to work I turn it off.

[logicmike]

tend to let mine sleep most of the time when not using it, just boots quicker

[Fizzban]

I turn mine off every night when I go to bed. Don't see the point in sleep mode. How long does a PC take to boot anyway? Not long.

[Big Elf]

At idle mine draws about 170W and in sleep mode about 4W so a big difference. Booting from cold it hits a peak of about 280W but for such a brief period it's not particularly significant.

[Pookeyhead]

Originally Posted by IamJudd

In a household that has two kids under three, turning off everything at the main power button or plug is something I try to do most of the time.
I've seen many threads that imply that a lot of you leave your 'puters on constantly.
My question is thus -
Does the running cost of spinning up a pc from cold equal the running cost of leaving it in a sleep state?
With SSDs being so widespread and quick, is there any point to leaving the computer on?

Ta in advance

No point in leaving it on at all. Waste of power, especially for this damned thing I've just built! I leave the server on 24/7 of course, but that's an undervolted, under clocked Celeron E3200 with a total system drain of 60W approx, and less when the drives all spin down. But even there I'm thinking of setting a schedule in windows to shut it down at night, and a mains timer to power it up in the morning (BIOS restore power setting to "on").

Saving power = saving cash. Why would you not want to do that?

[RedFlames]

Hibernate/Hybrid sleep cheesecake...

[Pookeyhead]

Just turn the damned thing off. Takes 1 minute to boot, or less if you have a SSD. You in THAT much of a rush? Save power.

[Flibblebot]

Originally Posted by Pookeyhead

But even there I'm thinking of setting a schedule in windows to shut it down at night, and a mains timer to power it up in the morning (BIOS restore power setting to "on").

I already do this with my servers. Everything powers down at 23:30 and a mains timer wakes them up at 08:00 next morning. My unRAID storage server also has a script to put it to sleep when there's no activity and gets woken back up using WOL when its needed.

I turn my PC off most nights, sometimes I'll leave it asleep. I use the time it takes to boot to go and make a cup of coffee.

[GeorgeStorm]

I only leave my pcs on if they're doing something.
At the moment, main PC folds on both gpu and cpu, and media pc downloads.

[Sloth]

Both PCs go off at night, mainly for the noise. Neither is very loud but I find it hard to sleep with humming noise. Sometimes I'll turn off my main PC if I'll be gone for awhile but the HTPC stays on all day once it's on, it takes a few minutes to get up and ready which isn't exactly fun when wanting to sit down and watch a movie.

[Raptor77]

Originally Posted by IamJudd

My question is thus -
Does the running cost of spinning up a pc from cold equal the running cost of leaving it in a sleep state?

There's no real energy difference between sleep and off at the wall. Off will save money and electricity but it's such a tiny amount that I wouldn't factor it in. Personally I like turning things off, at least on the appliance.

If you look at Big Elf's numbers:

Originally Posted by Big Elf

At idle mine draws about 170W and in sleep mode about 4W so a big difference. Booting from cold it hits a peak of about 280W but for such a brief period it's not particularly significant.

*4W for sleep mode. If you pay 12p for 1kWh of electricity (probably pay more but I have to pick a number), that's £4 for an entire year of having the computer sleeping 24/7. Or £2 if it sleeps 12 hours a day for a year.

*280W peak for booting. Assume it takes 1minute to boot and uses 280W for that minute (big overestimate). Sticking to 12p per kWh for electricity, and assuming you turn the computer on once a day it's going to cost you 20p a year to boot up. Or 40p a year if you boot up twice a day etc.


So if you wanted your computer on and in use for 12 hours a day, and "off" for the other 12 hours you could either:

- Spend £2 to sleep the computer for 12 hours a day for a year.
- Spend 20p to boot up once a day for a year.

No more than a few pounds difference over a whole year between sleep and off with Big Elf's numbers. It's certainly insignificant compared to other energy use in the home, so I'd say just do which ever you feel more comfortable with. I imagine sleeping the computer uses some more energy to come back online but again, it's going to be a small amount.

[Teelzebub]

I turn two off and leave two others in sleep mode at night.

[Mac_Trekkie]

I don't even let mine sleep, but that's because I need to access it often with TeamViewer at all hours. But our Media center is always sleeping when we're not using it. We put one of those power wattage measuring thingies, and it takes less power than our DVR does when the HTPC is asleep and the DVR is powered off at idle. So as far as I'm concerned, it's no point in powering it down when sleep is so efficient.