General Question

Trustinglife's avatar

Is there a significant difference in energy usage between shutting down a computer overnight and putting it on sleep/standby?

Asked by Trustinglife (6668points) June 27th, 2008

I have a PC. My habit is to turn it off overnight, but I know that many people leave them on standby. Know anything about the differences?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

10 Answers

jlm11f's avatar

i have always wondered the same. GQ Trustinglife!

scamp's avatar

I don’t know if the savings are significant or not, but I used to leave mine on all the time, and now I put it on “hibernate”. It seems to be a little more cost effective because the electric bill is slightly lower.

marinelife's avatar

From Tech Trax:

“When a computer is Hibernating, it’s the same as off, from a power consumption point of view. Your computer’s memory is actually flushed out to disk just before powering off and stays there until you turn the computer back on. When the computer comes back on, it’s exactly the way you left it. A computer can stay in hibernation mode for a much longer period of time than standby mode when unplugged, and it uses less electricity. It takes slightly longer to resume from Hibernation than from Standby. However, it’s more secure because everything‘s written out to disk, and you’re not dependent on a good power source while in Hibernation, as you are with standby.”

Trustinglife's avatar

The Start-Turn off computer option on my PC only gives me options to Standby, Shut down, or Restart. Is Hibernate available on other operating systems?

eambos's avatar

Hold the shift key while your cursor hovers over the “standby” or “shut down” buttons. It should then offer the choice of “hibernate.”

scamp's avatar

@Trustinglife Maybe hibernate is the same as standy. My computer is about 7 years old, so it’s a dinosaur!

eambos's avatar

I just checked to make sure what I said was correct. To put your computer into Hibernate mode, hold the shift key and press the “standby” button.

Trustinglife's avatar

Wow, that’s awesome. I’m going to try it tonight. Thanks Marina and Eambos!

robmandu's avatar

Hibernate writes all RAM to disk and is in essence, practically off.

Standby mode, on the other hand, leaves the RAM active with a trickle of juice to keep it from being lost. My laptop in standby is good for a couple of days before running the battery down.

scamp's avatar

Thanks Rob!

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther