On 8/28/07, Richard Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Folks, > > Is it better to leave a system running all the time or is it better to shut > it down over night, on weekends, holidays etc? > > In the past I have always shut my Debian system down over night etc for 3 > reasons: > > 1) I put backups on my 80GB external HD which I usually leave shut down even > when I boot the rest of the system. It's about the same age as my internal > 160GB HD so I hoped to reduce the probability of it failing at the same time > as the internal HD by starting it less often. > > 2) I hoped to reduce the probability of being hacked by shutting down, > although I do have a firewall installed. > > 3) I thought it was a waste of electricity, and money, to have a machine > running that wasn't being used.
If you are worried about amount of electricity that your PC uses, you should simply measure it. A long time ago i measured that my PC is using 0.4A on normal operation and 0.6A while CD-ROM spinning (on 220V AC). So, this means - 0.4*220 = 88 Watts. This is approximately like regular light bulb (not very economic). I usually leave my PC on in winters because of some long-lasting downloads, or music playing, or i simply don't want to close all the open programs (not all of them saves state). However in summers it makes my room quite hot, so i prefer to turn PC off. Anyway i turn my CRT off, as this is a real consumer of electricity. > But I notice that most backup utilities are designed to backup automatically > at the same time every day or week. That seems to assume that the system is > always running. There are also tools that executes missed cron jobs during startup. If i remember correctly there was something called anacron. Regards, Atis -- Atis Lezdins, IT Responsible of BEST Riga, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 142239285 Skype: atis.lezdins Cell Phone: +371 28806004 [Tele2, Latvia] Work phone: +1 800 7502835 [Toll free, USA] ?BEST? -> www.BEST.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
