Power

I get a weekly newsletter from ZDnet. The articles in the newsletter vary week to week but essentially they discuss everything from the latest trends in technology to free downloads. If you are at all interested in technology and how it is shaping our world, I recommend trying this on for size. I have never received any spam at the email I use for these newsletters so don't be worried about ZDnet selling your email address to spammers.

An article last week and this week caught my attention. The first article starts the ball rolling with the debate of whether it is better to leave your PC running 24/7 or to turn it off when not in use. I have almost always been in the "leave it on" camp. My computer stays on all day and most nights although I do shut it down the night before when I will be away during the day. I figure the power savings warrant this despite the wear and tear on components that going from cold to hot might cause. I also use the power savings settings available in XP to put things into "standby" when I am not around.

This "standby" power saving setting is what caught my attention in the second article:

Alan Meier at U.C. Berkeley is one of the smart guys on this subject. He added up the standby machines in some typical homes and found that it's like leaving on a 60-watt lamp--for your entire life. With 102 million households in the United States, that's roughly a 6,120,000,000 watt-level of standby draw.

I have never really thought about all the appliances a typical household has that uses this type of technology. Not to mention the number of "always on" devices around like clocks. There is a clock on the oven, the microwave and of course the VCR.
Will any of this change my daily routine? Probably not. But it is interesting to think about.
Do you worry about power savings? What is your computer shut-down practice?