Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!udel!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!bunny!jwg1 From: jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: Re: Leave it on? Or once a week? Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 90 20:17:59 GMT References: <1161@ux.acs.umn.edu> <37285@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Sender: jwg1@GTE.COM Distribution: usa Organization: GTE Laboratories Incorporated, Waltham, MA Lines: 40 In-reply-to: harlan@pewter.ucs.indiana.edu's message of 27 Feb 90 20:32:35 GMT In article <37285@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> harlan@pewter.ucs.indiana.edu (Pete Harlan) writes: > > I like your argument, but why isn't throwing out and replacing > electronic equipment just as wasteful as using up a little extra > electricity? Isn't the whole reason "leaving it on" is cost-effective > because a computer represents more resources per month (over its > lifetime) than the electricity required to run it? > Good point. However, it's not clear that it is a "little" extra electricity that we are talking about. Also, many failures are not total in the sense you have to throw a whole piece of equipment out. In fact, at the current pace of technology improvements much equipment is probably upgraded/replaced long before its useful life is up anyway. Also, I've seen some very enlightening treatises on this subject by various folks who are quite knowledgable about electronics design, physics, etc., and based on what I've read it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference to the life of the equipment whether you leave it on or not. (With the possible exception of course of electromechanical devices like disk drives, which seem to last longer if you DO turn them off.) At best the differences seem to be "marginal". I do know from personal experience of about twenty years - turning my equipment off every night - that I don't have any more equipment failures than anyone else. In fact, I've been blessed with less than a handful of failures in all that time. I realize that there is considerable debate on this topic, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to convince anyone one way or the other; I'm just trying to raise the conservation issue as a factor to consider. I think it is too often ignored. -- Jim Gish GTE Laboratories, Inc., Waltham, MA CSNET: jgish@gte.com UUCP: ..!harvard!bunny!jwg1