I'd better post a hit in a hurry! I'm glad to know I was not delusional about
leaving my computers on (and set to sleep overnight). There were a few opinions to
the contrary but it sounds like we are all making rational choices based on
individual set ups. THANK you ALL very much for taking the time to respond.
Before I get to the hits, I have to share more: The day after this debate with the
English teacher, I was on the staff meeting agenda to give a badly needed
presentation on technology available in the library. Keep in mind I am paid as a
sub and was not paid to attend this meeting, I volunteered in response to many
conversations with the principal about improving teacher training AND his desire to
increase technology use, especially in light of the pathetic print collection we
have in the middle school library. When I arrived at school at 10:30 to prepare
for this, all my computers had all been turned off for me. I spent one hour
turning them all on, logging into various databases, setting up programs to
showcase, etc. I used the 13 minutes it took to run the security scan to make
signs for each station so teachers could pick which ones to explore after I gave a
brief intro. When the hour was up and teachers were reconvening in my library, the
principal made an intercom announcement that because they were behind schedule, the
technology component was to be cancelled. I turned each and every computer off
while they continued with their meeting (which I felt was rude of me but under the
circumstances I had no choice) and then I went bowling with my kids.
Ann Rox and Melody Pinkston win librarian of the week awards for actually providing
references for me!!!
Susan Waring
Temporary Librarian (or maybe just library clerk)
OLS-Seton Middle Campus
Endicott NY
1. I looked into the energy savings of turning off the computers versus the wear
and tear of leaving them on. I have 31 computers in my library. I have a few set
for the monitor to cut off after 15 min. and the hard drive after 1 hour of no
activity. They do not have to reboot. Moving the mouse brings them back to full
life. At night, I turn off all monitors (they are the biggest energy users). I
completely shut down all computers and the server for weekends and holidays. Here
are some sites that discuss energy savings:
http://www.fno.org/jan03/jancartoon.html#anchor
http://www.sustainable.energy.sa.gov.au/pages/advisory/education/saving_school/saving_school.htm:sectID=18&tempID=45
http://www.uni.edu/its/us/faqs/PCenergytips.htm
Here is the site I found most helpful for both views:
http://www.pcguide.com/care/care/gen/powerOnOff-c.html
2. You might look at this:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question328.htm
I know that at our lab we leave the computers on all the time. Both Macs and PCs.
3. I leave the 11 computers in my library on from Monday AM until Friday PM unless
the network goes down and I have to reboot. But even on weekends I leave the
monitors on. A highly respected tech guy told me several years ago that I would use
more energy turning those monitors off and on than I would having them on all the
time. A screen saver runs after 15 minutes of idle time (black screen red
scrolling line THE MORE YOU READ THE MORE YOU KNOW).
4. Computers need to be shut down at least daily. As you use the computer, files
that are opened are not closed - at least background files sometimes are not -
until the computer is shut down completely with the proper
procedure followed. If a computer is left on for several days, the speed with
which it operates will gradually slow down to almost zero because so many
operations are still running in the background.
I learned this from my son-in-law, a MS tech. When you first turn on your computer
and before starting any programs, right click on My Computer and look at properties
and see how much of your computer memory is being used. Later in the day before
turning the computer off, do the same thing and you will find that your free
computer space has been greatly reduced. Turning it off and waiting a few minutes
to restart is the only way to restore the computer to its full capabilities.
5. We are part of a WAN that updates overnight. If you don't shut down, no updates.
We ask all classrooms to shut down and we shut down our lab. I also shut down my
home computer every night.
6. Our energy audit guru told us just last week that we should turn off our PC and
the monitor when we *leave for the day.* He estimated that our district (7
schools) would save something like $15,000 a year in energy costs. We don't turn
them off during the day as that is too time consuming, but we do before going home.
7. I only turn of my computers on Fridays and before a holiday.
8. Our computers (and we have 3 labs in addition to the library and
administration) stay on all day. Our tech man says that one of the weakest
components of a computer is the switch and that the constant wear and tear of
turning on/off can break them. I have 3 computers in my library lab that have had
to be "hot-wired" to the reset button because the power button cannot be repaired.
I have another that is down because both the power and reset buttons are now broken.
9. Computers use very little power- much less than your typical home applicances.
10. Anything can be "fried" during a power surge...but that can happen even if the
computer is turned off but left plugged in. Just get the best surge protector you
can and hope for the best.
11. We have to leave ours on, because our district sends Windows updates through
the network to each of the schools.
12. I don't know what others will say about today's computers, but a teacher's
husband at my school had an Apple IIe. He did not turn it off ever and it lasted
years longer than most. The policy at my school was to turn the computers off at
the end of the day. It was not recommended to turn them on and off with each user
and
I forget why.
13. My computers here are set to go to sleep mode (monitor off, hard drive off)
after 5 hours, just like yours. Screen savers are on otherwise. I shut down and
unplug when I go home each night. The reason is that I'm
seven miles from school, and if a thunderstorm comes up during the night I don't
really want my computers zapped. Of course, I do have one that I'm threatening with
a lightning rod, but that's another story.
14. I do not shut down my library computers, I put them to sleep. My home computer
hasn't been turned off in years. Every once in awhile you need to reboot, but I
recommend sleep over shut-down.
15. We never turn ours off, though that is due to after hours remote tech work.
I've never heard that it made enough of a difference to turn the computers off
though. At my previous school we also always left them on
- that was my decision as the Tech Coordinator and again it was because I could do
remote tech work after hours. That was in a public school in a district that was
strapped for funds - believe me if it would have
saved money the district would have had a policy requiring us to shut down!
16. This is probably too little too late, but the tech administrator for our county
told me to leave our computers on, but turn off the monitor. He said that the only
way to keep them protected from a power surge is to acutally
unplug them from the wall. Just turning them off is not enough to protect them.
He said to turn off the monitors b/c they lose their brilliance over time. Hope
this helps.
17. I am in a small rural school where we have 9 computers in the library - 2
for the OPAC and 7 for internet and word usage. I came here from a larger district
where we had 10 computers for student use - again 2 OPAC and 8 internet. In the
larger school, we turned off the computers every night, not after every class
period. That district was "energy conscious" but never really checked on us. In my
present school we leave the computers on all the time, even weekends, unless the
weather predictions are for rain and storms. We do turn all the computers off
during Christmas vacation and spring break, but other than that they are left on.
Why not? It takes time to go around and turn each one on and log in. The kids
know so much more than we faculty do!!
18. Unless you have specific server issues, I would recommend leaving the
computers ON. Hope this helps you.
19. As an LMC specialist, TV production teacher, and Technology guy (...am I an
expert yet?)...Completely powering down and powering up computers (or televisions)
every hour is very hard on them. They'll wear out more quickly. (You can actually
hear a loud noise when you turn on a TV or computer for the first time, kind of a
"Bu-rhum") "Sleep" is a better option to save monitors than a screen saver--I
wouldn't power down hard drives during the day, but I have set the ones in our LMC
to automatically turn off at 3:30. (They give a user a chance to delay turn-off if
they're in use.) I do not use the auto-on feature, I have the first users of the
day turn them on and let them switch off automatically.
20. Our tech person has set all the computers so that logout is not possible, only
restart. She says they need to shut down and restart often to clear the
cache/tempfiles/something like that? I don't remember all the technical
terms. But since the last setting used is thus restart, I usually have to go
around and shut them all down at the end of the day, because they want all possible
power off to energy savings.
21. We only turn ours off when a major thunderstorm is expected and if a storm
happens we buy new surge protectors.
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