Preface: I started writing this entry because I was in favor on turning your PC off, but after crunching some numbers, it seems that it might not make so much sense after all.
Sumir Karyi, CEO of 1E, recently submitted a report on power consumption from personal computers in the work place. It states that around 50% of US workers do not shut down their PCs at night. Collectively this amounts to $2.8 billion in wasted energy bills. For you GREEN enthusiasts out there, that is 20 million tons of CO2 emissions each year.
I am not much of an environmentalist. I don't pour my oil down the storm drain or drive a hummer around town, but I do keep the office air conditioner on 70 degrees and I am notorious for leaving the lights on. The GREEN argument doesn't really fly with me on small day-to-day tasks. Convenience and efficiency are important and those things sometimes eat some juice. What really makes sense to me are raw numbers.
Extrapolating from Karyi's article (1E Energy Awareness Campaign), $62 per year per PC can be saved by shutting down your PC at night. I have two computers that are on all of the time. One of those is my personal development server with multiple monitors, 2 CPUs, and a host of power hungry hardware. The conservative estimate of $150 per year of savings doesn't really convince me that it is worth my effort. It takes 10 minutes to power the darn thing on and get situated each morning. Can I bill that time to my clients? (The answer is NO.) So that means in one month I have already made enough money to cover the rest of the year's power savings. Doesn't make much business sense.
Let's take a look at the reasons employees turn off their computers.
"To enable the proper functioning of my PC" … What does that even mean? It is healthy to reboot your system once in a while, but is that really the reason you shut it down at night?
The UK says, "to help the environment" which is at the very least a valid answer but I tend to think they just say that to make themselves feel better.
The correct answer for almost everyone is "Someone else made me". I think it is of particular interest that they doctor the numbers for this category. If you add up #2, #4, #7 that accounts for around 50% of the vote.
My favorite answer is: "I have a laptop". Do you shut down your laptop at night?
I don't think Americans do enough to save energy, but who's fault is it?
Think I am crazy? Leave a comment to tell me so.