Computer Wear and Tear

Would not recommend turning the computer on and off more than 4-5 times each day. "The hard disk drive would be worn out sooner" "Power down the system at night and on weekends. This option will save energy and extend the life of your computer. It is a common myth that turning computer off and on is bad for it. Research on current technology shows an improvement in system life when the equipment is turned off, since heat and mechanical stress are the two leading causes of computer failure. On older equipment there was concern about power cycling stress (particularly on hard disks) but this is no longer true".

"Most experts agree that turning PC equipment off at night or a few times a day will not appreciably affect its useful life. Electronic equipment life is a function of operating hours and heat. Both of these factors are reduced when equipment is switched off. Modern drives are designed to operate reliably for many thousands of hours including thousands of on/off cycles".

http://www.energy.unsw.edu.au/unswitch/experts.html

Sterling Sonego
Dufferin County Waste Management
Canada

The Grist.org has some links to such info:

http://www.grist.org/article/toil-conservation

John Beeson
Chief Mystic
betterENVIRONMENT, LLC
United States

I'm interested in information about wear & tear and energy savings from turning off computer monitors if one will be away from their computer for a certain length of time, say 15 minutes or longer. At the county government where I work, screen savers kick in after 5 minutes or so of no action on the keyboard. Computers must be left on overnight and on weekends in order for upgrades to be run.

Theresa Cross
MS RD CD
Clark County Public Health
United States

On the issue of needing to leave computers on overnight, so that network upgrades can occur. New network software can be installed that permits the computer to 'go to sleep' until the network tells it that it's time for the network upgrade to be performed, in which case it wakes up, turns on, and gets upgraded.

Microsoft in particular just announced last week 'energy saving software for networks'.

In the U.S. the EPA offers technical assistance on this: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_implementation_res#tech_assistance

Natural Resources Canada may offer the same here.

Norm Ruttan
President
iWasteNot Systems
Canada
www.iwastenotsystems.com

Screen savers do not save energy and letting your computer go into screen-saver mode is not the same as setting it to go "standby" when not in use (which does save energy).

Either you can set up network power management in your office, or individually on your computer. Here are simple instructions for individual computer power management:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_users

You might consider sending someone from your organization to an energy management training/certification sponsored by NV Energy. The training may include computer energy saving topics, or at least could build additional internal support for your efforts.
http://www.nvenergy.com/saveenergy/business/training.cfm


Gwen Farnsworth
E Source
United States
www.esource.com