On 30/08/2015 17:56, Peter Humphrey wrote: > On Sunday 30 August 2015 00:04:43 Philip Webb wrote: >> How long do desktop users typically leave their systems between reboots ? >> How long between power off/on's ? >> >> I've long been in the habit of switching everything off while I sleep, >> then restarting after I've woken & got going again myself. >> However recently, I've run into delays getting my router >> (only 1 device attached) to shake hands successfully with my ISP's server, >> which have been requiring several power off/on's before it works. >> As a result, I've started rebooting only after my weekly system update >> -- it means I get to use the new versions of everything -- >> & not powering off at all ; the monitor + Xscreensaver are off >> whenever I'm away from the machine for >= 1 hr (approx). >> >> Are there any pro's/con's I sb aware of ? > > No-one has yet mentioned taking backups. I'm still using a brute-force > approach, in which I shut down each of my two machines once a week to make a > backup to external disk. Otherwise they're on 24 hours a day running BOINC > projects. On the desktop PC kmail makes a daily archive of messages, and once > a day a cron job copies my user directory to /home/<me>.bu/ . > > I know it burns energy but I'm prepared to make my small contribution to what > I think is a good cause. >
A desktop or laptop will typically draw far less power than a single 60W incandescent bulb. I bet you have quite a lot of those. Even if not, the CFLs you'll have to give you light at night still draw much much more than a computer. If saving energy is your personal driver, then you should be looking at water heaters, central heaters, aircon and stove as the main culprits. Everything else, whilst measurable, is a small drop in the bucket and probably not worth worrying about. Assuming of course that your computer is a desktop/laptop, and not a 42U cabinet jam packed full of Dell 2950s -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
