Does anyone know if it takes more energy to turn a computer on or to leave it on? Trying to save energy!?

Question

I've always heard that it takes more energy to turn a computer on than to leave it on, and thus leave my computer on, all day. The whole family uses the computer at different times throughout the day, so if we turn it off, we'll keep turning it on several times a day. Right now, I turn off the screen when it's not in use, but leave the hard drive running.

Answer 1

Let's think this through, shall we?  

IF a computer takes more power to start up than it takes to leave running for 12 hours, how much power is that?  Let's see, an hour is 3600 seconds.   Let's say it takes 10 seconds for a computer to start up.  If that takes more power than leaving it on 10 hours, then the computer must take 3600 TIMES the normal power to start up.  Right?  

A typical computer takes 100 watts.   3600 times that is 360,000 watts.   OK, that's more power than a whole shopping mall takes.  The copper wires to handle that much power would be the size of your thumb, just the copper part, and you'd need 3 of them.  You couldn't lift the power cable it would take.  The lights would dim in your whole town when you turned on your computer.

So obviously that makes no sense.  

You can get a gadget called a "Kill-a-watt" and measure it for yourself, but more likely your computer takes about 20% more power for the first 10 seconds.  It's not enough to worry about.

Answer 2

I don't know where some people get these stupid ideas from. If you aren't at the computer turn the dam thing off. No wonder we are having to build more and more power generators . The modern way of thinking these days is when not in use unplug or turn off.

Don't leave tv's on stand-by, unplug phone chargers when not charging and turn lights off if you're not in the room and you would be surprised just how much power you will save.

Just as a matter of interest, a microwave oven with a clock uses more energy to run the clock in one year than it does for cooking in the same period. Fact.

Answer 3

When a PC first boots up it use around 120-150 watts of power.  Once the PC is running it will drop to between 80-100 watts.

So, when you are not using your PC, switch it off.  This is the best way to reduce carbon emissions.

Alternatively, you can buy an energy efficient PC or buy carbon offsets to offset the carbon emissions from your current PC.

Answer 4

most electric items use more electricity when left running all the time even when just left plugged in.

There are a few green computers now which use very little power but even so - they do use power.

you can actually get a device to measure how much power is being used by any electriclaaitem just when sitting idly plugged in.

for the convenience of your family i can understand you may want to leave it on during the day but why not turn it off at overnight. It is called compromise.

Answer 5

I have heard that if a computer is continually turned on and off that overtime it could effect the memory.

Consider setting your hibernation on your computer. To do this, right click (using windows) on the desktop. A box should appear...scroll down to the bottom and click on Properties. Another box should appear with various tabs at the top...click on the ScreenSaver tab. Once the tab is fully loaded...you should see a box at the bottom entitled Power supply and there you are.....

Hope this helps....