Tarkblog

I was reading a technical article today on improving the startup time of your computer. A number of theories were introduced, but one person dissented from the whole topic by talking about how with his particular setup (using certain Linux based installs and whatnot) that he doesn’t have a need to reboot but maybe once every few months, so it’s not an issue for him.

At first, I was inclined to agree somewhat. Our test cell computers at work have wonderful uptime (the server, for example, has been up 277 days and the last reboot was only because of a power outage).

I understand everyone else’s plight too. I use Windows most of the time on my computer at home, and I find I need to reboot it every couple of days in order for things to “just work right”.

As I continued reading, I found a person who commented back, saying that he reboots his computer a lot. In fact, he shuts it off every night and turns it back on again in the morning (something I don’t bother with). His reasoning: energy conservation. According to him: California electricity is expensive.

Whoa. Wait just a second there partner. Now, I know these fancy electronic chips they make these days run hot and fast, but are they really that expensive? Did you do the math here?

Let’s just pencil it out: Let’s figure that the average computer draws around 150 Watts while it’s being used; the monitor draws 100. While they are not being used, thanks to technology such as “standby mode”, let’s say both together draw around 40 Watts. I think that’s a pretty fair estimate.

So, at my house, I’m going to assume the computer is in standby mode 20 hours a day. This means, that in one day my computer has “wasted” 800 Watt-hours of energy. The going rate for electricity around here is about 7 cents per Kilowatt hour, so this means that on a typical day, my computer cost me 5.6 cents of wasted energy. If you figure in the time I do turn the thing off, and figure some days I use it more than others, let’s figure that the computer costs me $1.25 a month to let sit idle. That’s 15 bucks a year. That’s three trips to Starbucks. That’s 3/4 of a lapdance in Vegas.

On the other hand, let’s think about what you do actually consume. Run your dishwasher (particularly with the “heated dry” feature?). That’s 2 kW right there - figure the average family runs it once a day for an hour - that’s 15 cents a day just in washing the dishes - 3 times as much as you waste on your computer running. What about a hair dryer(1.8 kW)? Or an electric stove top (2.5 kW)? Or a clothes dryer (3+ kW)?

The point is, sometimes people get wrapped up in thinking more than they know.

Remember growing up and learning about “water conservation?” Does anyone else think this is funny now? Water conservation? Because, what, we may run out of it? It’s not like when it goes down the drain it disappears forever. What a crock.

When I was young and naive, I would take quick showers because that’s what they told us at school: 2 minutes is all you need for a shower to conserve water. It didn’t click in my head that I lived in the country - we had a well. They water supply wasn’t just going to magically disappear!

So kids, remember: take long, hot showers in the morning. And don’t forget to blowdry your hair.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2004 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.