When to sleep and when to shut down

To sleep or not to sleep?

That is a question computer experts have debated on and off since the personal computer first became a fixture in our tech-savvy homes.

Back then, tech support experts told us to put our computers to sleep — or on standby — and shut them down only sparingly. The work it took to power up a computer, they reasoned, wore on its hard drive and shortened the life of the machine.

Now, with a heightened awareness of energy conservation, these original claims are widely disputed as myths. Shutting down your computer, experts advise, takes little work and allows the machine to refresh itself.

Although researchers acknowledge there is a small surge in energy when a computer starts up, this energy is still less than the energy used when a computer is running for long periods.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently released guidelines about when to use sleep mode and when to shut down your personal computer.

The guidelines recommend turning of your monitor if you are going to be away from your computer for more than 20 minutes and shutting down the machine if you are going to be away for more than two hours.

Here are some considerations that can help you taylor these guidelines to fit your work-at-home computer needs:

* Normal startups allow the machine to perform self-tests and alert you to software updates.

* A sleeping machine still consumes power and produces heat. Computers left on all the time may, have a shorter life.

* Laptops still use power when sleeping, so be careful putting it in sleep mode when your battery charge is low.

* Wireless network connections may not refresh when you move from one network to another in sleep mode.

* When you awaken your computer from sleep mode, you do not need to restart programs or reopen files as you would if you had shut down the computer.

* While many users opt to set their computer to automatically enter sleep mode after a certain amount of time (usually about 15 minutes), they also choose to set up a screen-saver, whether it be a collage of photos on the hard drive, or a laser show or underwater scene. The Harvard University Computer Reduction Energy Program recently released a study about screen savers and energy consumption and found that using a screen saver likely uses more energy than leaving the computer on.

Posted:Monday, March 09, 2009