Do you turn your computer completely off when not using it?

[antkim]

Dumb question I know BUT Dh tells me to just keep it on even at night when it is not being used. I'm thinking this can only be adding to our already OUTRAGEOUS electric bill! What do you think?
While we are on the subject of electric bills I was considering buying a toaster oven to use for the smaller things-like chicken nuggets/fries for kids quick meal. Is it worth it? If you own a toaster oven do you use it a lot?
Any energy saving tips out there? LOL

Kim

P.S. I just got a letter from the electric company saying that my budget is being increased by almost $40 a month!! I will now be paying $318 a month for electric!! Now I should add that we have electric heat as well so that is a major factor even though we heat a lot of the house with a wood burning stove. The winter's have been getting colder and colder for longer stretches of time so my heat turns on more!!

 

[helenabear]

I put my computer to sleep or hybernate it when not in use. My husband keeps his running 24/7 (not sure if it "sleeps" or not). Honestly from what I understand, a complete reboot/start up sucks up more energy that you would imagine. I'll double check with my DH who is the hardware person in the family, but I think he usually says it is easier on the computer and in general to just keep it going.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Ours too is always on, just hit the sleep button when leaving it. When ready to use it, just hit the button to 'wake it up'.

We use toaster oven a LOT.

 

[FroggyinArk]

the only timewe shut ours down is when we are out of town, or when its storming out, we are trying adding a timer to the waterfall pump and the pool pump and filter, tryingto lower ours, we restarted the water feature ion landscape and added swimming pool this year and now our bill went up by 45 bucks . we blame our night owl stay up till 3 with tv fan lights etc going dd . not sure why but she has always been night owl,, when she was 2 we caught her in her closet playing with her toys at 2 am,, she was in closet to keep from waking us up according to her

 

[antkim]

O.K. then ANOTHER dumb ?......where's the sleep button?

 

[antkim]

Realistically, we have a lot of BIG electric "suckers" like a huge fish tank, big screen TV, pool filter(which we have on a timer so it doesn't run unnecessarily, hot tub(on "economy" mode this time of year) not to mention the every day appliances which I did invest in the "energy effiecient" models when we just replaced them all within the past 2 years. SOOO I know this all adds up BUT it seems the more I try to get my bill down the more it goes up!! I'm just going to live by candlelight from now on and who needs heat-thermal underwear is the way to go!! LOL
Can you tell I just paid the bills?

Kim

 

[Beth76]

We leave both of ours on all the time. My DH is a big computer nut too, so he knows what he's doing. I also LOVE my toaster oven. It takes a little more time to "toast" things, but I still love it. It's really convenient to bake/broil small things, since you don't have to heat up the whole oven.

 

[oogieboogie]

DH keeps his on hibernate. The kids' I turn off, because they don't use it on an everyday basis. My laptop I turn off and on as needed. DH's PC is the only one that gets constant use so it's easier and better to just leave it on. My PC at work is on hibernate, except on Friday when I turn it off for the weekend.

$318 a month? WOW... that's some electric bill. I think our bill for electric and gas doesn't even come close to that! Ouch!

Get a toaster oven! I bow to whoever invented the thing.

 

[DVC-Don]

We shut ours down at night and when we leave the house.

 

[snels]

Hi,
We turn our computer off when we aren't using it.
Sandy

 

[mommytotwo]

Since my computer doesn't use the same line as the telephone, I keep it on all day and all night except for when I am sleeping. It makes things way easier so that I don't have to keep rebooting and is able to check on my email instantly.
As for the toaster oven question, we do have one-we are on our second one and love it. It is used every day when we make toast and we also use it for other things. We warm things up, cook things, and such in it, and I even bought one for my cousin and her family as a housewarming gift, and it does all kinds of different things-it can even cook a roast-so highly recommend it.

 

[julie_yet]

We leave ours on all the time too.

 

[WendyZ]

We turn ours off at night and when it's storming. DD's get turned off at night also. She's running 98, so when it's on all day it starts acting up and the restarts begin.
I don't think our computer has a sleep button, DD's does.

 

[Annette_VA]

Desktops stay on 24/7. Laptops get shut down when not in use.

I've never really used my toaster oven for cooking stuff, just for making toast

 

[Feralpeg]

I shut mine down and unplug when I'm not using it. Of course, I now live in the lightning capital of the US. I'd rather not worry about a possible hit.

 

[Lorix2]

Antkim - do you see a key with a half moon onit on the top left of you're keyboard? That's where mine is located. You push it to wake up or put it to sleep. Sounds funny, huh?

 

[Disney Doll]

We log off at night, but don't actually turn it off.If we are going away we actualy turn it off, shut down the power etc. I turn it on first thing in the AM when I am off form work, because I bop on and off of it all day to check something or look something up or do a little bit of work here and there for a committee I am involved in at work.

If you have electric heat, do oyu not use any oil or gas? Becuas e it would seem to me that even though your electric bill is fairly high, if you don't have a gas or oil billin addition to it, doesn't that sort of even it all out? I mean What's the difference if we have a $60/month electric bill but our oil costs us $70/month? It still comes out to the same amount. You're just getting itall in one bill instead of 2. Or is electric more expensive than oil or gas altogether?

 

[Amberle3]

Mine gets shut off at night.

My mother is an IT manager. You wouldn't believe how often I hear about problems at work because of equipment being left on over night. I'm talking people coming in to work in the morning and their monitor is smoking/on fire, the fan on the PC burning out over the weekend and the whole floor reeks, that kind of a thing.

It's not just a matter of how much energy they use when running as opposed to starting up. It's also the heat they produce, and the lifespan of the various components.

And from a security standpoint, unless you have a foolproof firewall and anti-hacking systems installed I'd sure be reluctant to leave my computer on and unattended for 8+ hours.

 

[antkim]

We do not use gas/oil at all just the electric except of course, the almost 600.00 we spend in the fall for wood for our stove.

Disney Doll, I'm assuming you were just throwing out numbers but if 60 and 70 are what you pay monthy for your gas/electric then you pay ALOT less than we do!! Can I move in? LOL

Kim

 

[CamColt]

The only time our computers get shut off is when we go away on vacation.