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> This is a bad thing, not a good thing You explain why it's not necessary for you, but you don't explain why you think it's a bad thing. Why is it bad that ou

> This is a bad thing, not a good thing You explain why it's not necessary for you, but you don't explain why you think it's a bad thing. Why is it bad that our computers are always on, never restarted, always connected?

contingencies 13y ago
Power consumption for starters.
- vacri 13y ago
  As long as your monitors power off and you're not leaving the system doing much CPU work, modern computers don't use a lot of power when quiescent. Sure, they use more than being turned off, but they're not exactly IR hotspots.
  - fulafel 13y ago
    The average is around 50 watts for desktops (https://secure.www.upenn.edu/computing/resources/category/hardware/article/computer-power-usage https://secure.www.upenn.edu/computing/resources/category/ha...) which adds up to a lot. 440 kWh/year per desktop. For comparison, as much as your washing machine, dishwasher and all your 10 (cfl) ceiling lights together (from http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html). Or as much as a low efficiency fridge-freezer. Multiply by 2 if you run air conditioning. Multiply by number of employees for an office. Etc.
    - vacri 13y ago
      Your numbers seem off. 7-year-old desktops with monitors off rate 50-70 watts. More recent desktops in that link are 30-40 watts, so you're looking at numbers a little bit more than 20% smaller. I'm also not sure about your office, but in my office the lights are on for much more than the four hours per day in your other link. And similarly, we're talking about when I'm not using my computer for work, so it's not 440 kWh/year (24x50x365). Given I work about 9 hours a day, the portion of a year that I'm not at my workstation (including weekends) is about 250 full days - so the number is actually more like 240 kWh/year (24x40x250) for leaving it on overnight.
andrewflnr 13y ago
Because as GP said in the third paragraph, they're making decisions for us that tend to be biased in favor of permissiveness.

contingencies 13y ago

Power consumption for starters.

vacri 13y ago
As long as your monitors power off and you're not leaving the system doing much CPU work, modern computers don't use a lot of power when quiescent. Sure, they use more than being turned off, but they're not exactly IR hotspots.
- fulafel 13y ago
  The average is around 50 watts for desktops (https://secure.www.upenn.edu/computing/resources/category/hardware/article/computer-power-usage https://secure.www.upenn.edu/computing/resources/category/ha...) which adds up to a lot. 440 kWh/year per desktop. For comparison, as much as your washing machine, dishwasher and all your 10 (cfl) ceiling lights together (from http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html). Or as much as a low efficiency fridge-freezer. Multiply by 2 if you run air conditioning. Multiply by number of employees for an office. Etc.
  - vacri 13y ago
    Your numbers seem off. 7-year-old desktops with monitors off rate 50-70 watts. More recent desktops in that link are 30-40 watts, so you're looking at numbers a little bit more than 20% smaller. I'm also not sure about your office, but in my office the lights are on for much more than the four hours per day in your other link. And similarly, we're talking about when I'm not using my computer for work, so it's not 440 kWh/year (24x50x365). Given I work about 9 hours a day, the portion of a year that I'm not at my workstation (including weekends) is about 250 full days - so the number is actually more like 240 kWh/year (24x40x250) for leaving it on overnight.

andrewflnr 13y ago

Because as GP said in the third paragraph, they're making decisions for us that tend to be biased in favor of permissiveness.