Using the PC on a Timer switch / Timing applications on PC?

Cantdance_2

Hey everyone...

Having recently been stung with a huge leccy bill I've been frantically trying to make the most of my economy 7 and have succesfully managed to move all my washing, dishwashing, ironing and tumble drying to the middle of the night when it's cheap!

The last thing I'm still doing that uses any substantial amount of electricity on day rate is leaving my PC running 4 or 5 nights a week to download TV programmes from the states.

At the moment I'm switching the PC on when I go to bed at 9 and leaving it to download overnight, however, that still makes about 4 and a half hours where the PC is running on the day rate - and to cap it all off my ISP is also throttling badly between 6pm and midnight so it's a complete waste all round.

Is there any way under the sun that I can set some kind of timer on the PC so that it turns itself on at a specific time and starts running programmes that I predefine? I'm guessing probably not, but it's worth a shot!

Cheers

James

albertross_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=208262&highlight=scheduler

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/71029/electric-shock/page3.html (this link doesn't seem to work anymore without registering.. but it was an in depth look into PC based electricity consumption)

Do you turn the screen off, and turn the PC off at the mains when not in use.

PS.. If you boil a full 2 litre kettle (8 average mugs), on a normal tariff (9p/kwh), it costs about 2p, 1 litre (4 cups) 1p, 2 mugs 0.5p.. So if you always fill the kettle up, instead of just doing 2 cups at a time it wastes 1.5p per boil, 6 boils/day, = £33+/year.

Cantdance_2

Thanks Albert...

I'll have a read of the thread you linked to - and yes I probably do fill my kettle right up too, although I only boil it once a day but yes, I should definitely not do it!

(hmmm, Albertross - sounds like a good heckle...?!)

Nice Burning Rope quote in your sig!

James (aka LivingForever)

albertross_2

There is another thread somewhere on the same topic, but having trouble finding it ATM, must be the way I walk, and you've obviously been downloading too many live bootlegs from 1980, which is why your leccy bill is so high.

Cantdance_2

Can't believe I didn't know there was a simple task scheduler as part of Windows XP - LOL!

So, the way I see it then, I can set a physical timer switch on my router so that it only comes on at 1.30am, thereby restoring internet connection just in time, and then set Task scheduler to run my torrent program at 1.31am (selecting the option to wake up the PC if it's switched off), so when I get up in the morning I'll have had a good few hours of downloading on Night rate.

Genius!

Previously I was leaving 2 computers, router, speakers, monitors, printers, etc on 24/7 - literally for months at a time, no wonder I got a huge bill...

I also left my TV, DVD recorder, VCR, Sky Digibox and Nintendo on standby 24/7, left lights running all day and all night 'for the dogs', left my dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer working when I went to work, and also ran one empty fridge and one empty freezer in my cellar for no good reason.

(It's nice to see the error of your ways I must admit...!)

James

Cantdance_2

albertross wrote:

There is another thread somewhere on the same topic, but having trouble finding it ATM, must be the way I walk, and you've obviously been downloading too many live bootlegs from 1980, which is why your leccy bill is so high.

LOL... you got me!

1980, 1977, 1976, 1975... I could go on... ;-)

Trouble is, once you start... well, you probably know!

James

Cantdance_2

Right been testing and Task Scheduler will not turn on my PC from a complete switch off...

Any ideas?!

James

albertross_2

some bioses can turn the PC on at a specified time.

Kilty_2

You could wire your power switch in place of the buzzer in an alarm clock, then set it to go off at the time you want your computer to turn on.

As long as you wire it before the piece of equipment that pulses the buzzer on and off, that is.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
When I download files at night, I use free download manager, with one click you can set it to turn your pc off when the downloads have finished.


http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

Little_John

The hard part is getting the pc to switch on automatically. You are using task manager to shut the machine down is a greta way to do it. The only way I can think would be a feature of some bios's where they can be set to restore their previous state either on or off if power is removed ie a powercut.
This has major drawbacks if the machine is shut down then its previous state was off so it wont work but what you could do would be to get a standard timer socket for the pc, it switches off at 7am or what ever time you want making the pc think it s a powercut when the timer trips the socket on the ps will wake and switch on for the night shift and you use task manager to run any programs once windows is up. your other option would be to add the programs to the startup folder save using task manager.

now the down sides just cutting power isnt a good idea it can cause drive failures or other components to fail and data errors.

The best thing would be some sort of timer to trip the power switch on the pc but that would require some bodging.