Computer on or off?

Computer on all the time, or on and off. This is one debate that has gone on forever. There is no actual hard and fast answer to this because it really depends on your personal usage as well as other factors.

Here is what you need to consider:

• Your Personal Usage Habits
  Some people, like me, work for many hours at a time on the computer. I may step away for an hour or two to have dinner or do some housework. It does not make sense to turn the computer off for this brief period. If several people use the computer, perhaps Mom during the day, the kids when they get home from school, Dad when he gets home from work - again, it doesn't really make sense to turn it off when it will only be off for a few minutes or so. However, I do turn off the computer when I go to bed at night. It will then be off for a number of hours.


• Power Consumption
  Leaving the computer on, especially the monitor, when no one is using it wastes power. The power wasted by an average families computer being on and unused at night, for instance, over a years time can be significant. Even if you leave the computer itself on, it is best to turn the monitor off. The monitor uses the most electricity, and also (I'm sure you've noticed) can become quite warm, which can be a hazard. It is also better for most monitors to be allowed to be off and cool down.

  How warm does your computer really get? During a short period this winter we had no heat. No big deal in the office - the computers, by themselves (3 of them) kept this small room warm!

• Thermal Stress
  Speaking of heat - after your computer has been off for a number of hours, all the components are at room temperature. When you turn the computer on, these components heat up - and expand. Off - and they cool down - and contract. This is thermal stress, and is a significant cause of system failure.

  What you want to do then, is not turn the computer on and off every few hours - but turn it on and leave it on, unless it is going to be off for a significant amount of time.

• Wear Out
  This is the flip side of thermal stress. If you turn the computer on and leave it on for days at a time, some components (most notably the monitor) will experience significant wear. Again, it is a good practice to at least turn the monitor off.
• Allowing RAM to clear
  There is a great explanation of RAM, and why shutting your computer down and rebooting it clears it right here. So if you use a lot of large heavy programs during the day - like the graphics program I use - your computer needs a nice shut down now and then to clear RAM.
• Temperature
  - some office buildings turn off the airconditioning at night. If you leave the computer in the office on, it may be subject to overheating.
• Power surges
  Depending on where you live this can be more or less of a problem. Users in the Midwest United States during storm seasons will want to turn their computers off during a storm. If you are going to be asleep or away from the house, then it is probably wise to leave the computer turned off rather than risk a storm related power surge or cut off.