PC Power Penny Pinching... switch off completely at night..?

RainbowsInTheSpray

For my sins, I use an ancient Dell Optiplex755 tower and it's given good service over many years... but with electricity costs going through the roof I'm wondering if 'sleep mode' is good enough overnight. Would there be much to be saved by a full shut down and then reboot the next day? Excuse a lay person's ignorance of power usage.

victor2

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

For my sins, I use an ancient Dell Optiplex755 tower and it's given good service over many years... but with electricity costs going through the roof I'm wondering if 'sleep mode' is good enough overnight. Would there be much to be saved by a full shut down and then reboot the next day? Excuse a lay person's ignorance of power usage.

I have set my PC to hibernate when I hit the power switch. That way it powers down but remembers where it was before doing so, and goes back to that position when powered up again, which it does much faster than a cold start, although longer than waking up from sleep. Uses slightly less power when hibernated than in sleep mode.

Obviously, it can vary from system to system, but my tower PC draws 1.2W when shut down or hibernating, and 2.6W when sleeping. Even when shut down computers still draw a little power. You'd have to unplug or isolate it to use no power.

So, at 44p/kWh, sleeping would cost 2.7p per day, where hibernating would cost 1.3p per day. Penny pinching, but every little counts, as they say!

Neil_Jones

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

For my sins, I use an ancient Dell Optiplex755 tower and it's given good service over many years... but with electricity costs going through the roof I'm wondering if 'sleep mode' is good enough overnight. Would there be much to be saved by a full shut down and then reboot the next day? Excuse a lay person's ignorance of power usage.

Here you go:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-2941d165-7d0a-a5e8-c5ad-8c972e8e6eff

CoastingHatbox

I always shut down my computers when not in use and then turn them off at the plug.
They boot so quickly now, I don't feel the need to hibernate or sleep them.

I've always preferred to start a new 'session' with no apps running or browser tabs open. Less distracting and if I've turn the PC on to do something else, I don't inadvertently leave a program running consuming CPU cycles. And if we are penny pinching, those extra CPU cycles also count.

If you use your PC for extended periods, it might be worth measuring it's power consumption and working out what it costs.

When I was running my old desktop, I disconnected optical drives and even took out the video card as the on board graphics were good enough. I cut it's power consumption when switch-on but idle down from ~60W to 35W.

nottsphil

victor2 said:

Obviously, it can vary from system to system, but my tower PC draws 1.2W when shut down or hibernating, and 2.6W when sleeping. Even when shut down computers still draw a little power. You'd have to unplug or isolate it to use no power.

So, at 44p/kWh, sleeping would cost 2.7p per day, where hibernating would cost 1.3p per day. Penny pinching, but every little counts, as they say!

It's been several years since I used a tower (on XP) but I'm pretty sure that it remained in hibernation when I unplugged it from the socket! 

For the OP, nightly savings would be maybe a third of those quoted here as they are based on 24 hours use.

Neil_Jones

nottsphil said:

victor2 said:

Obviously, it can vary from system to system, but my tower PC draws 1.2W when shut down or hibernating, and 2.6W when sleeping. Even when shut down computers still draw a little power. You'd have to unplug or isolate it to use no power.

So, at 44p/kWh, sleeping would cost 2.7p per day, where hibernating would cost 1.3p per day. Penny pinching, but every little counts, as they say!

It's been several years since I used a tower (on XP) but I'm pretty sure that it remained in hibernation when I unplugged it from the socket!

In theory it should do, but a lot depend on the hardware.  Hibernation is more designed for laptops where the hardware won't change (and a total power "failure" is expected because of batteries), but on a desktop the behaviour is more unpredictable.  It can work, though in my experience it took a heck of a lot longer to restart from hibernation after a power unplug session than it would have done just to do a cold boot in the first place.

km1500

Shut down, switch it off at the plug.

RainbowsInTheSpray

Thanks to all but I'm not sure what's being said. My PC seems to be totally dead and soundless when shut down - no different from when the plug's disconnected from the mains. Is it actually drawing power and if so for what purpose?

I have no means of assessing watt whattage the thing is drawing in wattever state, sadly. By 'overnight', I'm talking an average 10-12hr period on average.

Given that I couldn't care less about how long it takes to reboot in the morning, would I indeed save a few pence on an overnight shutdown - with unplugging if necessary? If not, then obviously I wouldn't give myself the hassle.

googler

You can get plug-in power monitors which will tell you how much juice an applicance is using. £10 - £12 from Amazon. 

Can use this for other appliances as well as the PC.

victor2

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Thanks to all but I'm not sure what's being said. My PC seems to be totally dead and soundless when shut down - no different from when the plug's disconnected from the mains. Is it actually drawing power and if so for what purpose?

I have no means of assessing watt whattage the thing is drawing in wattever state, sadly. By 'overnight', I'm talking an average 10-12hr period on average.

Given that I couldn't care less about how long it takes to reboot in the morning, would I indeed save a few pence on an overnight shutdown - with unplugging if necessary? If not, then obviously I wouldn't give myself the hassle.

The PC's power supply will draw some power even if not driving the computer as in normal use. Certain items, such as the ethernet port are still being powered. It is, for example, possible to power up a computer remotely through a network it is connected to.

nottsphil

It won't save more than a fiver a year, so just consider whether that's worth bending down for 700-odd switchings. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle then the extra activity might be beneficial! 🤸