I turn my desktop computer (running XP) off every day when I’m not using it. It is a pain to wait for startup and shutdown times, but I’m concerned for the environment and all that.
I think most people leave it running 24 hours. I can understand why. Sometimes it take over 10 minutes to really get all services loaded. I’ve tried hibernate, but the Dell 9150 I use comes back from Hibernate with the fan running at full speed and it’s very noisy. Windows seems to be geared for 24 operation– with automated processes kicking off at different times of the day. It’s like the fridge– but I’m not sure how it compares in terms of energy consumption.
I’ve actually set my bios to kick on at 4am so the computer has finished start-up before I get up there ten minutes later. It does all my site backups at a specific time.
I’m trying to find more energy efficient uses of the pc. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to know.