Go Green, Save Energy and Money by Turning Off Your Computer Equipment

With the growing concerns about being "green" and conserving energy, people are looking at anything they can do to reduce their carbon footprint and save some money at the same time. It's only logical to consider looking at your computer systems. Is it better for your computer equipment to leave it running all the time, or will turning your system off at night really reduce your energy consumption?

Most people have heard that it's dangerous to turn a computer on and off. Heat and mechanical stress (the moving parts of a device) are the two biggest causes of computer failure. If you leave your devices on, you reduce the mechanical stress on them. Leaving the computer on also allows for updates to the operating system, virus scanning software, and other applications to be automatically downloaded and installed (these are usually scheduled by the particular O/S or application to occur overnight by default), keeping your system current with the latest security patches and virus codes. It's easier to leave the computer on overnight and let those updates come through than have to manually search the Internet periodically and install them yourself. You definitely don't want to miss one of those and get hit by a virus!

Is there a valid concern that powering off your computer equipment will damage hard drives, fusing units, display screens, and the like? This may have been an issue with computer systems built in "the olden days" (in computer time, that's 15 years ago), but modern computer systems are a bit more durable than that. Improvements in manufacturing over the years mean that it's very unlikely your hard drive will seize up or your monitor's circuit boards will fry by powering them up in the morning and down in the evening. In fact, many computer manufacturers and experts agree that doing so will actually prolong the life of your system. However, don't go overboard in your zeal to conserve energy. Switching devices on and off more than four or five times during the day could indeed shorten the life of your hard drive.

As for automatic software updates, most vendors allow the user to set the time for the update to go through. You can change this time to sometime during the day (say, your lunch hour) and let the updates come through at that time. But modifying a program's update time may not be necessary: When you power up your computer, these programs can recognize a scheduled update time has been missed and will immediately launch the routine to download and install the updates. You get your latest-and-greatest version of the software and didn't have to change a thing. (Do keep in mind that during this process you may notice a slowdown in your computer's performace, and you may be asked to reboot your machine once the updates are installed.)

Some devices should be powered off all the time and powered on only when they're needed, particularly in a home environment. You have that great all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax machine, right? And it gets used, what, twice a day? Try scheduling your printing/faxing/scanning/copying needs at one point during the day. Power the printer up, do what you need with it, power it down. We're doing that at home with ours and have noticed that problems we were having with the ink cartridge not aligning properly have disappeared. (Gosh, even the computer guy can learn something new!)

Keep in mind though that hitting the "off" switch doesn't mean your device isn't using energy. "Standby" electricity, or power that's used by devices even when they're turned off, can account for up to 25% of your total power bill, according to a study done by students and scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The study recommends unplugging devices like computers when not in use, or at least plugging your computer, monitor, printer, and other peripherals into a power strip (with surge protection, of course) that can turn off all devices with the flip of a switch.

For home users, powering off your system overnight can have an added security benefit. When any computer is physically connected to the Internet, via enterprise LAN, cable modem, DSL, or wireless network, it becomes a target for those less-than-scrupulous computer afficionados (okay, they're hackers...I was trying to be nice!) whose main goal in life is to get into your computer and see what you've got. Even with a direct connection to your system, no hacker is going to get into a computer that has no power. And if you plug your router and cable modem/DSL modem into the same power strip that your other computer equipment goes into, with one touch you can eliminate any access to your home network from the outside (too many owners of wireless routers do not have security set up to prevent outside users from accessing their Internet connection). Look at all the virtual birds you can kill with this one stone!

So the bottom line is this: Turning off your computer system when not in use (nights and weekends at work; overnight at home) can reduce your energy consumption, decrease your monthly utility bill, extend the life of your equipment, and increase the security of your system. Now that looks like a no-brainer to me. Who wouldn't go for an option like that?