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People shut down their computers? Are there places in the world where people have to actually care about the power consumption of their computer so much that t

People shut down their computers? Are there places in the world where people have to actually care about the power consumption of their computer so much that this is a thing? Any examples?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
dist-epoch 3y ago
I know this is probably extremely surprising for you, but some people do the little things which help the environment even if it causes them mild inconvenience.
- GaryHak 3y ago
  Putting my systems to sleep at night saves me € 400,- a year. Enough to buy a mini pc to watch the fortress.
pohuing 3y ago
It takes 20 seconds to boot and it warms up my room if on. So why would I keep it on all the time. I turn it on when I use it and turn it off when I don't.
tarxvf 3y ago
Many people with homelabs - or a NAS with a ton of disks - don't use it all that often and it can cost quite a bit in electricity over the course of a month. Or maybe they live in an apartment and prefer quiet over the noise of fans and disks.
FridgeSeal 3y ago
Because it costs money to run and I’m not made of money? It might be cherish, but money I don’t have to spend is even better. It’s also better for the environment(!!) and I like my working space to be as quiet as possible.
avh02 3y ago
Some people live in places with rolling blackouts and the UPS doesn't last long enough, so easier to shutdown cleanly and power off the UPS so you're not constantly cycling the battery for no good reason.
Jerrrry 3y ago
[flagged]
- IshKebab 3y ago
  My computer uses about 150W idle. The only people who leave that running 24/7 are those that a) enjoy ruining things for others, b) hate money, or c) are too stupid to realise how much power they're wasting.
  - copperx 3y ago
    I agree. And it feels crazy that 2 lightbulbs consumed more than that power a few decades ago.
m463 3y ago
I guess the answer is "it depends" with average california cost/kwh (.35) raspberry pi ~ $1/month 200w server ~ $50/month also, more time on might mean more disk wear and greater chance of hardware failure. (there is probably some sort of heat shock, so leaving things on might be good too)
- ranger_danger 3y ago
  leaving spinning disks running all the time has definitely been proven to last longer than starting and stopping everything several times a day
leptons 3y ago
Your comment is shockingly out of touch, are you Elon Musk? Check out Mr. Billionaire over here, with money to throw away on idle computers. I live in California. Electricity is not free, or even cheap. I have 4 computers. 1 out in the garage that's my "off-site" backup system, complete with LTO tape drive. It's also got an 8 drive RAID10 array. I don't need it running 24/7. I need it on when I have a backup job for it to do, and off when I don't need it on. I have a workstation that I only use when I'm developing personal code. I don't need it running 24/7. It also has 8 spinning disks, video card, and a massive CPU. It consumes about 300W of power, so that adds up. My laptop is off when I'm not using it, but even that I wake remotely from time to time when I'm out in the garage and need a file from it. I have 1 server that runs 24/7 and handles Plex, security cameras, and 6 virtual machines. It's a workhorse, but it's got a 65W CPU in it and barely uses the video card. My electric bill is $600/month in the summer months, mostly due to AC but I don't need to make it any worse by running 4 computers continuously when I don't need to.
liminalsunset 3y ago
I don't shut down my computers. From a hardware perspective, it seems to be high temperature for a long time (>70C, >55C if it's passively cooled) and thermal cycling are the two mechanisms that cause hardware to fail. Neither of these are true for a computer left on when idling. Where I am from, 1 W 24/7/365 is approximately one dollar per year (~10 cents per kWh). I have a Mac Mini M1, now, but I used to have an Intel MacBook Pro and before that, a 300W workstation. The MacBook Pro took about 30 watts idling, so about two dollars a month. I probably lose more than that on exchange rate fluctuations. The 300W workstation took about 300 watts idling, so about 20 dollars a month. This is rightfully significant, and due to this concern, that computer was replaced. However, if I did not have the option, 20 dollars a month is a perfectly reasonable price to pay considering the hundreds of tabs, programs, daemons, and other misc things that I always had going on. I treated the computer as an extension of my mind that doesn't sleep, and I would pay $20 gladly for this feature. Now I have a Mac Mini M1. I haven't measured the wall power but "powermetrics" says the CPU, which is the only actual part in the computer, taking 600 mW (0.6W) idling. Absolutely no reason to shut this down ever. Why would I even consider that. Unless you have a GPU, and a relatively modern system, most desktop PCs (dell, etc) probably take about 15-20W to run. A GPU adds about 20-30W of idle drain. Depending on what you do with your computer, the question is simple: Would I pay $1/W/24/7/365 per year to keep all my stuff open? If it's too high, can you reduce the idle power consumption?
lizknope 3y ago
It depends on what the computer is doing. My home server runs 24/7 and idles around 80W. I have a backup server at my parents house that uses about the same amount of power but it only needs to be one once a week for an hour while I run my backup. Why would I have it wasting power doing nothing the other 99% of the time? So I have a Raspberry Pi that sets up a reverse SSH tunnel to my house which idles under 2W. I use that to send the Wake On LAN packet to the server.
beacon294 3y ago
Sure, in California. I pay $0.50 per kwh and the computer uses 90 watts idle. I sleep and wake the computer to recapture about $200 a year.
seabass-labrax 3y ago
It's not just power consumption - fire safety can be a factor. Although spontaneous combustion of a computer by itself is vanishingly unlikely, it only takes some loose piece of fabric or paper to waft its way across the fan and you have a genuine combustion risk. That is better-protected against now that most chips have built-in thermal cutoff measures, but a lot of machines still get warmer than I would like them to be.
fastasucan 3y ago
In what form do you want your example? I want to shut down my computers to reduce power consumption, reduce noise and heat. There you have it!

People shut down their computers? Are there places in the world where people have to actually care about the power consumption of their computer so much that this is a thing? Any examples?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

dist-epoch 3y ago

I know this is probably extremely surprising for you, but some people do the little things which help the environment even if it causes them mild inconvenience.

GaryHak 3y ago
Putting my systems to sleep at night saves me € 400,- a year. Enough to buy a mini pc to watch the fortress.

pohuing 3y ago

It takes 20 seconds to boot and it warms up my room if on. So why would I keep it on all the time. I turn it on when I use it and turn it off when I don't.

tarxvf 3y ago

Many people with homelabs - or a NAS with a ton of disks - don't use it all that often and it can cost quite a bit in electricity over the course of a month. Or maybe they live in an apartment and prefer quiet over the noise of fans and disks.

FridgeSeal 3y ago

Because it costs money to run and I’m not made of money? It might be cherish, but money I don’t have to spend is even better. It’s also better for the environment(!!) and I like my working space to be as quiet as possible.

avh02 3y ago

Some people live in places with rolling blackouts and the UPS doesn't last long enough, so easier to shutdown cleanly and power off the UPS so you're not constantly cycling the battery for no good reason.

Jerrrry 3y ago

[flagged]

IshKebab 3y ago
My computer uses about 150W idle. The only people who leave that running 24/7 are those that a) enjoy ruining things for others, b) hate money, or c) are too stupid to realise how much power they're wasting.
- copperx 3y ago
  I agree. And it feels crazy that 2 lightbulbs consumed more than that power a few decades ago.

m463 3y ago

I guess the answer is "it depends" with average california cost/kwh (.35) raspberry pi ~ $1/month 200w server ~ $50/month also, more time on might mean more disk wear and greater chance of hardware failure. (there is probably some sort of heat shock, so leaving things on might be good too)

ranger_danger 3y ago
leaving spinning disks running all the time has definitely been proven to last longer than starting and stopping everything several times a day

leptons 3y ago

Your comment is shockingly out of touch, are you Elon Musk? Check out Mr. Billionaire over here, with money to throw away on idle computers. I live in California. Electricity is not free, or even cheap. I have 4 computers. 1 out in the garage that's my "off-site" backup system, complete with LTO tape drive. It's also got an 8 drive RAID10 array. I don't need it running 24/7. I need it on when I have a backup job for it to do, and off when I don't need it on. I have a workstation that I only use when I'm developing personal code. I don't need it running 24/7. It also has 8 spinning disks, video card, and a massive CPU. It consumes about 300W of power, so that adds up. My laptop is off when I'm not using it, but even that I wake remotely from time to time when I'm out in the garage and need a file from it. I have 1 server that runs 24/7 and handles Plex, security cameras, and 6 virtual machines. It's a workhorse, but it's got a 65W CPU in it and barely uses the video card. My electric bill is $600/month in the summer months, mostly due to AC but I don't need to make it any worse by running 4 computers continuously when I don't need to.

liminalsunset 3y ago

I don't shut down my computers. From a hardware perspective, it seems to be high temperature for a long time (>70C, >55C if it's passively cooled) and thermal cycling are the two mechanisms that cause hardware to fail. Neither of these are true for a computer left on when idling. Where I am from, 1 W 24/7/365 is approximately one dollar per year (~10 cents per kWh). I have a Mac Mini M1, now, but I used to have an Intel MacBook Pro and before that, a 300W workstation. The MacBook Pro took about 30 watts idling, so about two dollars a month. I probably lose more than that on exchange rate fluctuations. The 300W workstation took about 300 watts idling, so about 20 dollars a month. This is rightfully significant, and due to this concern, that computer was replaced. However, if I did not have the option, 20 dollars a month is a perfectly reasonable price to pay considering the hundreds of tabs, programs, daemons, and other misc things that I always had going on. I treated the computer as an extension of my mind that doesn't sleep, and I would pay $20 gladly for this feature. Now I have a Mac Mini M1. I haven't measured the wall power but "powermetrics" says the CPU, which is the only actual part in the computer, taking 600 mW (0.6W) idling. Absolutely no reason to shut this down ever. Why would I even consider that. Unless you have a GPU, and a relatively modern system, most desktop PCs (dell, etc) probably take about 15-20W to run. A GPU adds about 20-30W of idle drain. Depending on what you do with your computer, the question is simple: Would I pay $1/W/24/7/365 per year to keep all my stuff open? If it's too high, can you reduce the idle power consumption?

lizknope 3y ago

It depends on what the computer is doing. My home server runs 24/7 and idles around 80W. I have a backup server at my parents house that uses about the same amount of power but it only needs to be one once a week for an hour while I run my backup. Why would I have it wasting power doing nothing the other 99% of the time? So I have a Raspberry Pi that sets up a reverse SSH tunnel to my house which idles under 2W. I use that to send the Wake On LAN packet to the server.

beacon294 3y ago

Sure, in California. I pay $0.50 per kwh and the computer uses 90 watts idle. I sleep and wake the computer to recapture about $200 a year.

seabass-labrax 3y ago

It's not just power consumption - fire safety can be a factor. Although spontaneous combustion of a computer by itself is vanishingly unlikely, it only takes some loose piece of fabric or paper to waft its way across the fan and you have a genuine combustion risk. That is better-protected against now that most chips have built-in thermal cutoff measures, but a lot of machines still get warmer than I would like them to be.

fastasucan 3y ago

In what form do you want your example? I want to shut down my computers to reduce power consumption, reduce noise and heat. There you have it!