The bottom line is that unless your computer (and Linux) gets kicked into APM or sleep mode (which linux does support to a degree) you get no savings. With the monitor off, your machine consumes about 120 watts of energy per hour. About the same as a strong light bulb. In the grand scheme of things, compared to refridges, TV's, heaters, etc. this is a minor expense. Like leaving one 120 watt bulb on all year, or about $20.00 US / year. Your monitor eats up slightly more current. APM/SLEEP mode requires Linux to effectively shut itself down, cron jobs cannot run, etc. so unless you can kick the box awake with a WOL or WOR feature, you get no benefit, except for a reduction of startup time. You can roughly calculate net power savings for shutting the unit off. Assuming that you leave your unit on 12 hours a day your unit will cost you about $22.00 / year to operate and you save about $22.00 versus leaving it on all the time. One thing to consider though, each hour of on time also adds to the total time between expected failure. So by having your unit off, you are effectively extending it's lifespan. This is analogous to leaving your car in the garage as opposed to outdoors all the time. The housed car will look & run better for a longer period of time since it is not exposed to the elements as much. Likewise moving parts will last longer. Fans will not wear bearings, dust will not collect as much in the case (I HOPE you keep your units off the floor!!!), less exposure to power surges, etc. For more info and a complete analysis see this link... http://eande.lbl.gov/EAP/BEA/LBLReports/39466/39466-1 -JMS |-----Original Message----- |From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Mark Johnson |Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 2:10 PM |To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' |Subject: RE: [newbie] letting computer run overnight without |overheating | | |This sounds like a good screen savers question for TechTv.... |anyway, I would think that most PCs now-a-days are pretty |green (I don't have any proof of this though). I would think |that you A/C, refrigerator, and computer monitor use up a |significantly more eletricity than your PC does. |
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