Should i turn my pc off or sleep or keep it on?

[darian2hunter]

Okay so throughout the day I usually keep my pc on and come to it every so often and play games and stuff throughout the night, but lets say i'm on my Pc and i want to go make a sandwich or go for a shower which only takes 10 minutes....What would be the safest thing to do? Turn it off? Sleep mode? Just leave it? This could be any time between 10 mins to 2 hours...?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Suxces]

Safe? In terms of fire hazard?

 

[darian2hunter]

Just in general, Fire hazard, Electricity bill, Life of my pc parts....I left my PC on for more than 30+ hours and started getting power surges that is why i asked

 

[madmatt30]

If you're running 8.1 or 10 then hibernate/fast boot is excellent for scenarios like this - it may take up 6-8gb hard drive space but the 5-10 second boot time is inherently worth it IMO.

 

[fudgecakes99]

Pc's don't exactly waste huge ammounts of electricity that said, don't worry about it if you're that consonances about being green go hibernation or sleep but personally i hate the boot times and waiting.

 

[darian2hunter]

So leaving it for 10-30 mins leave it on....But if away for a few hours turn it off? I'm not that bothered about boot times

 

[Hard_ware]

An hour safes you approximately 1 cent. U could base your decision on that.

 

[fudgecakes99]

i leave it on but maybe turn off the monitor if you don't use screen savers as it can cause screen burn with certain windows open.

 

[jaguarskx]

If my PC is going to be idling for less than an hour I do not bother turning it off; most cases it 30 minutes or less. If I am going out or I know I am not going to be using my PC for more than 1 hour I turn it off. That's just out of habit.

An idling PC does not really draw too much power, but that depends on your hardware. I would say 60w per hour on the low end and 100w per hour on the high end. The cost of electricity varies depending on where you live. Hawaii has the highest rates; about $0.47 per KWH in 2014. So in the worse case scenario you live in Hawaii and your PC idles at 100w and you will be paying about $0.05 for every hour your PC idles for.

 

[Hard_ware]

If my PC is going to be idling for less than an hour I do not bother turning it off; most cases it 30 minutes or less. If I am going out or I know I am not going to be using my PC for more than 1 hour I turn it off. That's just out of habit.

An idling PC does not really draw too much power, but that depends on your hardware. I would say 60w per hour on the low end and 100w per hour on the high end. The cost of electricity varies depending on where you live. Hawaii has the highest rates; about $0.47 per KWH in 2014. So in the worse case scenario you live in Hawaii and your PC idles at 100w and you will be paying about $0.05 for every hour your PC idles for.

Hello jaguarskx, thank you for the detailed analysis in writing and the distinguishing for low end and high end idling computers incl. worst cost of electricity. I fully agree with your assessment.
Then I should also lay down my calculation 🙂
It was based on roughly 100W for 0.20 per kwh which leads to 2 cents per hour.
Finally, why did I write only 1 cent/hour?
I also assumed that during six months per year people have to heat their house/appartment.
During heating period you save around the same amount of money for your heating costs if the PC is switched on (my assumption). 🙂
Therefore I concluded 1 cent per hour.
By the way. Regards from Germany. Here energy costs are usually higher.
Was a nice excercise.

 

[jaguarskx]

By the way. Regards from Germany. Here energy costs are usually higher.
Was a nice excercise.

Yeah, I actually meant to state "Hawaii has the highest rates in the US".

I paid around $0.23 while the lowest rate in the US was $0.08 in several states back in 2014 like Idaho.

 

[madmatt30]

^ all good info but the fact is all keyboards have a sleep button.
I see absolutely no reason not to use it personally (& I'm no eco warrior type).
Pretty much instant sleep/wakeup ,no bad points whatsoever IMO.
Takes power use (with a decent PSU) down to less than .25w & instantly lowers component temps .

 

[velo3100]

Personally I leave my laptop to sleep if I am not using and will switch it off when I go to bed. My generally rule is only switch it off if you are not going to be using it more than 5 hours or so.

 

[teknobug]

Years ago I used to leave my PC on 24/7 (and elec rates was rather low), but these days there's more "idle" devices around the house which adds to the elec bill so I basically turn off the PC when I'm not using it.

Linus once said, it really doesn't matter if you leave it on or turn it off, there's belief that it does add wear and tear to hardware if you turn on/off all the time but most of us don't even keep the same PC parts for longer than 2 years anymore.

It's $0.17/KWh (step 1) plus another $0.18/day here, ugh.

 

[Aladdad]

to be honest i just put my PC on sleep when im done. im pretty sure my PC haven't been OFF for over 6 months now..a Reboot sometimes.