Eric Lin wrote: > Most computers in school are ran 24/7, but they are mostly all air > conditioned and mostly are not placed near books. Does anyone know if it is > safe for a home user to leave his/her computer on continuously? It can be safe, presuming you take suitable precautions and understand the hazards and tradeoffs. (And, offering advice on a subject like this can be risky. You need to understand the risks and make your own decision. The following may not include all the factors or information you need to consider. There are several things to consider: * Safety of the computer * Safety of your home * Energy consumption Safety of the computer: A potentially big topic, there is a difference of opinion -- some people think that leaving your computer on all the time will prolong its life, as opposed to turning it on and off. Each on and off cycle tends to strain various components associated with the computer (like power supplies, the CRT (monitor), etc.) Leaving things like disk drives running all the time will tend to wear them out. Ideally, you want to configure some things about your system -- set the power managment features of your computer to: * "spin down" your hard drive after some appropriate time (1 to 5 minutes of no activity?) * put your monitor into "suspend" or whatever they call it after some appropriate time * suspend your computer afer an appropriate time (contents of RAM is written to the disk, and the processor is stopped or slowed down significantly) You might also consider getting a Transmeta Crusoe chip as your next CPU, in a motherboard that can support its power management features. The enemies (sp?) of electronic equipment are heat and surges. Surges come from turning the equipment on and off (as well as from external sources). Heat comes from leaving the equipment on. Safety of your home: Make sure your computer is positioned in a place where ventilation is adequate, and ventilation ports in the cabinets (especially the CRT) are not blocked, especially not blocked by combustible material like piles of paper. Maintaining good ventilation and avoiding heat build up helps to prolong the life of the computer and your home (from fire). But, nothing can guarantee that something won't happen to cause a fire, so take appropriate precautions. A fire alarm is important. I haven't heard of fires being started by a home computer, but it is an electronic device which uses electricity, creates heat, includes combustible components, and includes components (plastics, for example) which can produce poisonous gases (phosgene) during combustion. (Note that all of the same things are true of your TV, stereo, microwave, etc.) You may not want to have the computer running when no one is at home. Energy Consumption: If you have a computer with a 300 watt power supply that happens to use all 300 watts continuously (unlikely, especially if no one is using the computer), and a monitor, external modem, whatever, you could conceivably use 500 watts of electriciy per hour, which at $.10/kwh would be $1.20 per day or $36 a month in excess energy costs, and the creation of pollution etc. associated with the creation of that electricity, depending on how it is made. Realistically, I think it is more likely that a computer uses 100 watts or less (much less if in standby or suspend) with the monitor and so forth turned off. So now maybe you are looking at $7 / month in power costs. (The 100 watts is strictly a guess -- I've never tried to measure it or seen any published figures. -- I happen to run 5 computers during the day and 2 on a 7/24 basis, and I don't think I see an extra $30 per month in cost. (But I've been doing it for so long, I don't really have valid old figures to compare against.) Conclusion: I can't make the conclusion for you, you have to consider the hazards, risks, and costs, and make your own decision. Others may have additional points that I've overlooked. Hope this helps, Randy Kramer
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