TECH: On or Off?

["Earl J. Moniz" <earlj@moniz.org>]

My understanding of these on or off issues indicates leaving them on all the
time!
(Of course, I may not understand everything I know about computers...!)

A series of off and on cycles to an electrical circuit heats and cools the
solder joints and may eventually work them loose (the wires expand with heat
and shrink with cooling - ultimately enlarging the holes in which they are
soldered) ... after many, many cycles over many extremes of temperature ...
Additionally, the cycles of heating and cooling may cause some condensation
of moisture in the computer and corrode the connects ... (electricity
travels near the surface of conductors and surface corrosion impedes that
flow) ...

Which explains why they should be 1) turned on and left on if possible
(fewer heating and cooling cycles)
and 2) placed in air conditioned rooms (less moisture in the air) ...

Now, as far as the usage of electricity ... most computers nowadays consist
of a 250 or 300 watt power supply ... which means that with tons of
peripherals and everything going at once ... it might use 250 or 300 watts
(plus the power required for the additional devices) ... so, in the sleep
mode (if they really do sleep through the night ;-)  )  AND if you simply
turn the monitors off, the whole thing probably draws not much more than a
nightlight (4 ~ 6 watts) ... so if you have 10 of them running, it is as if
you left a 60 watt lamp on in the room ...

Hope this explanation helps...

Personally, I put an UPS on the computer at home and never turned it off...
The "one" time I did turn it off and unplug it from the wall, lightning hit
close to home and scrambled the hard drive ... go figure!
If we lost power in the house, I would then shut the computer down and
reboot when power was restored...

Aloha y'all   ...   Earl J.
Just an old Maui boy with a poor sense of direction ...   Fayetteville, NC
www.moniz.org / earlj@moniz.org
Host of "Chips and Dips..." on Radio 1230 - The Fort

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