Switching PCs off overnight or leaving them on: which is more environmentally responsible?

Question

The latter wastes electricity. The former shortens the lifespan of a PC's components thus potentially increasing hazardous waste. So what do I do, and what should companies with lots of PCs do?

Answer 1

as far as i know, the only component of a PC whose lifespan is shortened by power cycling is the power supply, which is pretty environmentally low-impact. and even this is something of a red herring - i've never seen a power supply fail from cycling, and while i'm aware it's possible, the odds are pretty low.



that said, most PCs have a standby or power-saving mode which drastically cuts power when nobody's using it. nevertheless i still say turning them off is the right thing to do. even if they only use 50W in standby, a hundred of them is like running 4 space heaters all night.



alternatively you could install folding@home or BOINC or some other distributed-computing screensaver that would run at night if you want to leave them on. at least then the power is going to something useful and not just being wasted.