To save energy, is it enough to turn off your computer when you're not using it or do you need to unplug it?

Answer 1

Unplugging it will do. No electricity is flowing through the circuit so you are already saving electricity and money. : )

Answer 2

It is enough to turn it off. The standby energy use is so small as to be unimportant. You can measure this yourself by looking at your electric meter. It will be hard though. Turn off and unplug every electric device in your whole house. Don't forget things like the refrigerator, clocks and so on. Probably a dishwasher or washing machine or toaster can be left plugged in but turned off because most of those are not computer controlled (yet) and do not draw any standby power. Your oven may be a problem. I suspect it cannot be unplugged and if it has a clock it draws some power. You could turn off all the circuit breakers for your house, and then turn on only the one that controls the socket where your computer is plugged in. It would also control other outlets on the same circuit, but at least you don't have to check the whole house. Then verify the disk in your meter is stopped completely, not even a hint of motion. Then plug in and turn on your computer and look at the meter again. Time how long it takes for the disk to make one rotation. Each rotation on most meters is 7.2 Watt hours (.0072kWh), so it will be going pretty slow with only a computer running. Then turn off but do not unplug the computer and look at the meter again. I suspect the disk will be turning so slowly that you cannot even see it moving. Now turn on your electric oven or air conditioner and see how fast that disk spins. You will be shocked! (No pun intended.)

Yes, I know this exercise is a big pain. Nobody ever really does this. I never have. But if you are REALLY serious about saving power, you need to take the trouble to find out what the big power users in your house are. And believe me, it isn't electronic devices on standby. Look at the meter with the A/C on and off (I have). Look at it with the oven on and off (I have). And with the TV on and off. Or watch the meter as a friend turns on different things in the house. You can see it speed up and slow down as things are turned on and off. You will not notice any change at all when a computer that was unplugged is plugged in without turning it on. The power use is just too small. It is like your house payment going up by two cents.

Answer 3

Turning the computer off is good enough, but unplugging it would just make you save even more energy, not a lot, but more. You are supposed to turn it off when you won’t be using it for a long period of time and at night. If you have a power strip you can just turn that off every night.

Answer 4

This is a tricky question. Many computers won't draw energy if they're turned off.

The tricky part is that there's a whole category of waste that belongs to holding modes on just about anything. TV's, radio clocks, Microwaves and the like all draw a bit of energy.

The best way to save energy is to buy power strips and to turn off the power at the strip. If you don't need it on all the time, just turn the power strip off.

Without knowing your computer I'd say it probably does draw some energy even turned off.

Answer 5

Turning it off and unplugging it will save you the most energy. However, make sure the computer is entirely shut down before doing so.

Answer 6

It's plenty fine to turn off the computer when you're not using it. Old School computer people shut off the surge protector.

Some older computers have a hard time of it being under the constant "Cold Start" of being shut off and on all the time. But technology has evolved and computers can be turned on and off just fine.

But Computers are actually some of the first "Green" technology we have. They shut themselves off, or power down to minimize energy use when not being used. Starting up out of standby mode uses less power than a hard restart. But your power company should have better statistics on that than I do.

Answer 7

Turning off the power strip is the best way to go to reduce electricity waste. Make sure you shutdown the computer first, and then turn off the strip. Connecting all your computer components to the same strip will ensure waste reduction.
It'll really only make sense to do this each night or when you'll not use the computer for some hours.

Answer 8

Judy,

Great question. No need to unplug it if you're using a power strip. Simply turn off the power strip once your computer is shut down. I hope this info helps. Green on!!!

Answer 9

Any appliance uses energy when it's plugged in so that it is always ready to be turned on. There was a study shown that forty precent of the energy and appliance uses is when it is off. Though, I wouldn't recomend it, I did it with my PC once, and it messed up the computer and I had to buy a new one. You can do it to every other appliance, just don't do it to a computer

Answer 10

I turn off the monitor (I think it uses the most power), but not the computer, it goes into "sleep mode" like I do in physics class.

Although, even when an appliance is plugged in, it does use a very small amount of energy.

Answer 11

Actually it's recommended that you unplug all appliances/electronics when you're not using them, not just turn them off. This includes computers and lamps ( I just usually unplug the surge protector that everything's plugged into) but certainly every bit helps!