since that's supposedly what 5 minutes wasted costs the company.
so otherwise you'd just be in and instantly working ??
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Switching PCs off at work
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Posted 2 years ago #
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One of our offices burned down after a PC left on overnight suffered a PSU failure... Perhaps turning it off would have reduced its theoretical lifespan but on the other hand it would have saved it and the others in the office from melting then being filled with water, so it probably would have worked out better to turn it off on balance.
Posted 2 years ago # -
We have PSU failures on PCs on client sites
These PCs sit in a cupboard & work 24/7 & nobody ever touches them until a few years down the line a tech comes along to do something that requires a power cycle
About 20% won't come back up again & need a replacement PSUNot you average office environment, granted
Posted 2 years ago # -
But couldn't that equally demonstrate that leaving them on all the time is bad?
Perhaps if they'd been shut down every night then the PSU wouldn't have been worn out?Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm presuming you've looked at the net costs to the environment of any premature hardware failure (manufacturing costs for replacement, recycling, landfill, toxic by-products etc) vs your calculations on the energy saving?
We worked out the cost to us (a 40 person company) and for the amount of premature failures we would have to pay for (ie, not covered under warrenty) its deffinatley worth turning them off at when not in office. Our servers however do stay on, as do printers (though we are looking into a way to have these turn off when not needed).
Posted 2 years ago # -
But couldn't that equally demonstrate that leaving them on all the time is bad?
Perhaps if they'd been shut down every night then the PSU wouldn't have been worn out?Yeah - that was my thoughts on it
Posted 2 years ago # -
dell did a case study on themselves - 40% saving on energy
Posted 2 years ago # -
These PCs sit in a cupboard & work 24/7 & nobody ever touches them until a few years down the line a tech comes along to do something that requires a power cycle
About 20% won't come back up again & need a replacement PSUSat in a cupboard 24/7 they'll evapourate their electrolyte from the big smoothing caps over time, they'll continue to work fine as long as they're powered up despite their fate being sealed, then the power-cycle will short through the caps and it's dead.
There's some effect from inrush current at every turn-on, I believe, but it's supposed to be minimal in comparison with the damage from evapouration of electrolyte. It'd probably need a case study for each PSU and environment to get the actual worst case, but my guess is that leaving them on is the worst case.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Same with lights; We have signs on all of them so that they are turned off when not in use etc.
My old place (Companies House) had light sensitive dimming lights fitted throughout with motion sensors. So if it was sunny they went off, if it was less bright they came partially on as appropriate. Then, after hours if no-one was in they switched off. Nice one.
As for PCs - why not use the power options to get them to turn themselves off? Pretty easy to implement I'd have thought and doesn't require any of your users to give a sh*t. Which they probably don't, otherwise they'd be turning off anyway.
Posted 2 years ago # -
..they'll evapourate their electrolyte..
So how much SIS should I be feeding them?
Posted 2 years ago # -
So how much SIS should I be feeding them?
I believe its boric acid and anti-freeze. Certainly smells funny when they go bang, spread fibres all over your lab and fire their casing at your head. You only over-volt one by mistake once, I can tell you!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm on an environmental panel at work, and I was charged with finding out if we had to leave PCs on overnight
Assuming you have an IT dept? Talk to them , instead of making arbitrary decision without consulting them, as per our enviromental team (some equipment needs to be left on... though not monitors)
Posted 2 years ago # -
I believe its boric acid and anti-freeze.
Yeah, and have you tasted SIS?
Posted 2 years ago # -
true. Maybe it's the very same stuff!
Posted 2 years ago #
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You only over-volt one by mistake once, I can tell you!
I once built up a strobe unit for my cousin and powered it up to test it. All seemed fine, but then I heard a strange 'creaking' sound. I was just wondering what it might be when there was a bang and the room filled with white smoke
Turned out it was putting twice the rated voltage on the caps!
Posted 2 years ago # -
IT depts seem to think their computers run on magic pixie dust
Posted 2 years ago # -
so otherwise you'd just be in and instantly working ??
What else would I be doing in work? (noting that I can't browse STW when my computer's not on
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My old place (Companies House) had light sensitive dimming lights fitted throughout with motion sensors.
Given it's bright and sunny out and the lights are on I presume they're not light sensitive (though given the size of the office and that the main windows are North facing, it probably would get rather dark in here otherwise). Definitely motion sensing - you have to make sure to move a bit if you're in late (normally there are a few of us in, at which point only the lights where we're sitting stay on).You only over-volt one by mistake once, I can tell you!
Though you might do it on purpose more often Posted 2 years ago #
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