Power On or OFF @ nite ? (electric, electricity, laptop, virus)

[AksarbeN]

Ok,,,, it’s the end of the day and you’re going to bed what do you do with the PC? You know you’ll be using it first thing in the morning however should you turn off the power to the pc and monitor or leave it on? My monitor goes to sleep after an hour or so, but the pc is always ON. What do you do?

[foma]

I didn't vote b'c I do both. I'll leave my computer on for a few days and then I'll turn it off every night for a few days. There's still a debate which is better so I figured I'd meet in the middle and do both.

[BrianH]

Everything in my house gets unplugged except the nightlight because my son has developed a fear of the dark.

[Prettygyrl777]

Im still confused on the 'unplugging of the computer at night' thing. I do it to save electricity but I use my notebook most of the time anyway. The weird thing is, if you actually look at the time of some of the updates, they usually take place around 2 or 3 in the morning. Isnt that weird? So should the computer stay on for that?

[killer]

Originally Posted by Prettygyrl777

Im still confused on the 'unplugging of the computer at night' thing. I do it to save electricity but I use my notebook most of the time anyway. The weird thing is, if you actually look at the time of some of the updates, they usually take place around 2 or 3 in the morning. Isnt that weird? So should the computer stay on for that?

If you turn your computer off it should still look for updates when it is turned back on.

My computer is just as busy at night as it is in the day, it downloads podcasts, updates itself and scans the disks for viruses and other mal-ware.

[foma]

Originally Posted by BrianH

Everything in my house gets unplugged except the nightlight because my son has developed a fear of the dark.

Unplugged? Like out of the wall or you mean turned off?

[BrianH]

My work PC gets turned off once every six months or so, whenever the power dies is and the batter back up runs out.

[southernlady5464]

My desktops stay on, my laptop gets turned off but stays plugged in. Since I close the laptop, I turn it off. I don't want my kitties walking across the keyboard.

Unless you physically unplug the entire computer, monitor and all, you aren't really saving any electricity by turning it off at night. Liz

[BrianG]

EERE Consumer's Guide: When to Turn Off Personal Computers

[ShadowCaver]

If short time [couple hours, overnight], computers stay on, but in sleep mode.
TV's tho' get unplugged when not in use more than ~5 hours or so.

If longer time [>24 hours], TV's and computers go off, and are unplugged.

Liz is correct TV's and related electronics still pull quite a bit of juice from the wall, even when off - due to convenience factor of being able to power on faster. They will use ~1/3 -1/4 of their 'on' setting when off and plugged in.