There has long been a big controversy on if you should leave your computer on or off when you are not using it. This question has been raised for both power conservation reasons and also in regards to the life of the equipment. There are pros and cons for both scenarios, but here are the facts.
As far as energy goes, it only costs about 28.00 a year to run a desktop computer, about 5 bucks for a monitor and only a few bucks for an average residential printer. If you decided to turn these devices off at night, you would only save about 12 bucks a year or about a dollar a month. Using sleep mode has almost no effect on energy savings and it can slow down your computer.
As far as computer life goes, most desktop systems are designed to be always on. In fact, your computer and hardrive will likely last longer if left on instead of being shut off every night. If your turn your system off every night and on every morning, the starting and stopping is putting extra wear on your drives. It is harder on a hardrive to be turned on and off then it is to be left spinning. The exception is if you are going to be away for a full 24 hours or more or during severe weather events. I have systems that have been running almost 24/7 for 8 years or more with out issues.
If you are using a SSD drive, there are no moving parts so staying on or off will have little effect on the life of the drive.
S there you have it! If you like the convenience of keeping your computer on and ready at all times, you are doing the right thing. If you want to save the buck or so a month, you can turn it off at night. For me, I like having my system ready to go anytime without having to wait for the boot up process.
So what about printers, you ask? The same holds true. almost all printers have an automatic sleep mode that they go into after a period of non use. As with computers, printers should be left on at all times unless you are leaving for an extended period. In fact, leaving a printer on will actually help keep your ink flowing smoothly as it keeps the heads in the proper resting place. The very small amount you might save shutting down the printer makes it simply not worth the savings. By shutting off your printer, you will save a whopping 40 cents a year! Mine is staying on, thank you.
If you looking to save on your electric bill, your technology products are not the best place to start. usually your AC and/or heating products are first on the list. This includes your water heater.
