Opalescence

I read an article that was mildly interesting, about how turning off your computer at night apparently saves money.  Being a culprit myself, I looked at it.

From the article: “If you run a company with 1,000 PCs left on overnight, you can save about $28,000 a year if they are turned off after hours. That’s not chump change.”

So, if we were to simplify this in terms of individual computers, if you turned YOUR computer off after hours, your per-year savings on electricity comes out to… $28.

Per year.  About $2.something per month.  Yeah, I’ll spring for that.

Casting aside for a moment the counterarguments that restarting your computer both incorporates a larger use of power than leaving it on AND places strain on the components over time (burnt out lightbulbs, anyone?), plenty of people schedule virus updates, defragmentations, and other more passive tasks when their PCs are “not in use” at night.

Then there’s the sanctimonious comments from the environmentally twitterpated readers who think this gives them license to tell other people how, and apparently when, to use their own computers.  I’m not saying that the power usage isn’t a problem per se, but it’s a miniscule enough one that the idea that one can take this post and use it as a shillelagh to poke their nose in how other people live their private lives is ridiculous, and frankly doesn’t make the shillelagh-wielder look anything but smug and petty.

Bottom line: thanks for the information, and I’ll take it under advisement.  In the mean time, there are more important problems you and I both could be tackling.