Switching off your computer saves money

freder_2

Switching off your computer saves money, but how much? Somebody told me that switching it on used a lot of electricity, so I decided to watch the meter and there was no increase of any great noticeable amount. So, should it be on standby when not being used for say an hour? should it be on all day long without use? Perhaps somebody has an answer, I mean does it cost a lot to run?

avinabacca

I lost the charger cable to my laptop for a couple of weeks about six months back - saved quite a few quid by not impulse-buying on Amazon

Tozer

freder wrote: »

Switching off your computer saves money, but how much? Somebody told me that switching it on used a lot of electricity, so I decided to watch the meter and there was no increase of any great noticeable amount. So, should it be on standby when not being used for say an hour? should it be on all day long without use? Perhaps somebody has an answer, I mean does it cost a lot to run?

Doesn't it depend on the power???

My laptop is 90w max. power supply. Therefore minimum 11 hours for 1 unit of electricity. Not horrific cost.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there! Tozer's right, I think It depends on the power usage of your appliance

As this has slipped from the front page of Old Style, I'll move it to the Techie Board, where the experts there can give you more help.

Blacksheep1979

As others have said, depends on what components are in the PC and what PSU you have - if you have a top end PC with loads of hard drives, top end GFX card, top end CPU etc etc etc then it's probably using a fair bit of power and should be shut down when not in use. If it's a laptop or a lower powered PC then it's probably not using that much power.

penrhyn

I think OP should buy themselves a wattmeter.

Like this one:-
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223573

superscaper

penrhyn wrote: »

I think OP should buy themselves a wattmeter.

Like this one:-
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223573

Of course the actual monetary difference will probably end up being less than the cost of the meter (although I do have one myself ).

Tozer

Suppose ultimately it depends upon how long you switch it off for. Clearly if you are on holiday for a fortnight, switch it off!

Don't forget some updates require the PC to be restarted from time to time.

Think the conclusion is, it is not huge amounts of electricity to start up so use common sense.

penrhyn

Just as well I didn't suggest buying and Electrisave:rotfl: