[Publib] Re: Powering off computer gear at night

[Joe Schallan]

Reed Winterbourne wrote:

"I wonder if the energy use costs that your library could incur by 
leaving
the computers running throughout the night has been considered. At my
library the computers and monitors used by both the public and the 
staff are
powered down after hours to conserve energy."

This reminds of a debate long ago at a nonprofit organization at which I
worked.  The argument was this -- Is the amount of money saved by
powering off more that the amount of money expended on repairing and
replacing computers and monitors, due to the stress on electronic 
components
from constant turning on and off?  (And there was a side debate on
whether constant turning on and off did indeed stress components, or
whether the various chips, capacitors, resistors, diodes, etc., were
engineered to stand up to repeated powerings-on and off.)

The techies within the organization argued both sides and never could
agree among themselves.  At the time people wondered if anyone
had actually carried out an experiment and published the results.  I
could not find any such report.  So the question remained unresolved,
and there were those who vehemently felt that all the powering up
and down was "hard" on the equipment, and those who were just
as vehemently outraged that we would leave hundreds of computers
running during off-hours and expend electrical power for nothing.

Anyone?  Karen?

Joe Schallan
Phoenix

PS.  I wonder if an even greater waste is office lighting -- i.e., 
lights
left on in office rooms no one is using, lights left on in offices after
closing.  If any of you have worked on a project late in an office,
you may have noticed the behavior of the custodial staff -- they go
to the main panel and flip on all the lights throughout the building,
even though they will be cleaning in only one section at a time.
(I believe this is why when you drive by office towers late at night
you see so many floors brightly illuminated.)