which is better to save on electric bill put computer to sleep or turn off?

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

I have a Crosshair viii hero and Ryzen 9 3950, I read that using sleep causes problems I usually keep the system running all the time but I would like to know how much I can save on my electric bill and which is better to use sleep or shut off

 

[P4-630]

I always completely shutdown my systems, also I don't use "fast startup" or hibernate, never have any issues.
This is the best way IMO.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not much difference in hibernation and shut down power wise
Personally I shutdown to save ssd...

 

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

thanks for the reply, I'll start shutting down

 

[xtreemchaos]

i just shut mine down when we go to sleep + my rig runs on powersaver plan when its doing nothing.

 

[8BitZ80]

I have used Sleep for years as a student. So regularly to the point that my computer wasn't shut down for weeks at a time. During sleep mode the system basically uses no power at all (maybe 1 watt or so). Resuming is super fast, you don't need to exit anything, it's a no-brainer.

 

[agent_x007]

Q : Do you power off with unplugging the power cord and/or switching off PSU, or is it just regular shutdown from windows ?
PS. By default, Windows 10 after clicking on "shutdown" simply goes to sleep mode (unless "hibernate" is off under powercfg).

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

I think in todays times with SSD drives and NVMe drives not relevant. I think it was to save power and save disk life.

 

[AusWolf]

As for me, with every new Windows installation, my first thing to do is disable hibernation and fast startup to save SSD lifespan. I also have fast boot disabled in the bios. These options have nothing to do with power, though.

Sleep is okay if you leave your computer alone for a short time and it's not doing any work, but it consumes a couple Watts to keep the RAM alive. Complete shutdown is the best option if you want to save power overnight.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I read that using sleep causes problems I usually keep the system running all the time

I find this comment odd. Are you having problems? The vast majority of people don't have problems just letting their computers go to sleep. I always just let mine go to sleep. Have essentially forever - decades.

As far as "you read" something, I assure you, if you look you can find that "________________" causes problems.

You talk about saving money on your electricity bill and then ask, "which is better". Well, obviously, powering off complete saves money. So if saving as much on your bill as possible is the goal, then you must completely power off. And as agent_x007 points out, that means you must unplug from the wall or flip the master power switch on the back of your computer. Just shutting down, even with the front panel power button, is still putting your computer into a stand-by mode.

While PooPipeBoy's 1 watt suggest is a bit short, computers in standby don't draw very much - probably closer to 4-5W - less than many nightlights.

The thing is, you really need to look around your home and determine if completely shutting down your computer is really going to make a difference. It probably will not.

Remember, EVERYTHING in your home that uses a remote control to turn on, uses power in standby mode. If it has a clock, timer, or power on LED, it is in standby and is consuming power.

TVs consume 2 - 3W in standby
Microwave ovens, 2 - 3W
Computer monitors 1 - 3W
Printer 3 - 5W
Dishwasher 2 - 3W
Wireless modems 7 - 30W
Wireless routers 7 - 30W
Washing machines 4 - 7W
TV cable box 15 - 25W
Programmable coffee pot 1 - 3W
Every wall wart .5 - 2W each (even if nothing connected on output side)

The list goes on and on.

But when you consider your refrigerator - typically the most power hungry appliance in our homes, furnaces, hot water, air conditioner, and other devices that really affect our utility bills, unplugging your computer every night is not really going to impact your bill. It will put wear and tear on your power switches, however.

 

[spectatorx]

I think in todays times with SSD drives and NVMe drives not relevant. I think it was to save power and save disk life.

Actually not true. NVME drives consume the same amount energy or even more than hard drives which surprised me when i was reading technical specification of particular models of drives.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Hibernation writes yeah win-10 trim is better but shut down just saves unnecessary writes period.

 

[yotano211]

I find this comment odd. Are you having problems? The vast majority of people don't have problems just letting their computers go to sleep. I always just let mine go to sleep. Have essentially forever - decades.

As far as "you read" something, I assure you, if you look you can find that "________________" causes problems.

You talk about saving money on your electricity bill and then ask, "which is better". Well, obviously, powering off complete saves money. So if saving as much on your bill as possible is the goal, then you must completely power off. And as agent_x007 points out, that means you must unplug from the wall or flip the master power switch on the back of your computer. Just shutting down, even with the front panel power button, is still putting your computer into a stand-by mode.

While PooPipeBoy's 1 watt suggest is a bit short, computers in standby don't draw very much - probably closer to 4-5W - less than many nightlights.

The thing is, you really need to look around your home and determine if completely shutting down your computer is really going to make a difference. It probably will not.

Remember, EVERYTHING in your home that uses a remote control to turn on, uses power in standby mode. If it has a clock, timer, or power on LED, it is in standby and is consuming power.

TVs consume 2 - 3W in standby
Microwave ovens, 2 - 3W
Computer monitors 1 - 3W
Printer 3 - 5W
Dishwasher 2 - 3W
Wireless modems 7 - 30W
Wireless routers 7 - 30W
Washing machines 4 - 7W
TV cable box 15 - 25W
Programmable coffee pot 1 - 3W
Every wall wart .5 - 2W each (even if nothing connected on output side)

The list goes on and on.

But when you consider your refrigerator - typically the most power hungry appliance in our homes, furnaces, hot water, air conditioner, and other devices that really affect our utility bills, unplugging your computer every night is not really going to impact your bill. It will put wear and tear on your power switches, however.

This might sound strange and funny, but my mom even unplugs the toaster. When I asked her why, she told me, "I notice that the power bill is smaller with the toaster unplugged".
I showed her proof with a kill a watt device that it draws 0 watts plugged in when not use, she still unpluggs it every time.

I'm a bit different, I shut off my computer and all devices around me. I shut off everything with a switch on the breaker box, I live on a boat. For me its preserving the batteries for night time usage when I'm there.

 

[Bill_Bright]

she still unpluggs it every time.

The habit of unplugging when not in use could go back to her childhood - depending on her age and where she grew up.

Toasters are very high-wattage appliances and have a history of causing house fires - even when not in use. Also, because many toasters have a metal housing, if the outlet is faulty, touching the toaster with one-hand and the cold water faucet in the kitchen sink with the other can result in electrocution. Not good. Plus, leaving any appliance plugged in can give Mother Nature another path to wreck havoc during a lightning storm, should she decide to target your house.

Note this article is from 2009 - Pulling the Plug on Your Toaster (ezinearticles.com)

So your mom is probably mistaken when it comes to the power bill. But don't give her a hard time when it is fact, unplugging when not in use is the safer thing to do.

 

[SN2716057]

On my previous board (MSI Z370) I had issues with certain programs but now with the new mobo [sig] it works just fine. According to my UPS both sleep and power-off uses 0 Watts (this also depends on your psu).

 

[Frick]

I find this comment odd. Are you having problems? The vast majority of people don't have problems just letting their computers go to sleep. I always just let mine go to sleep. Have essentially forever - decades.

As far as "you read" something, I assure you, if you look you can find that "________________" causes problems.

You talk about saving money on your electricity bill and then ask, "which is better". Well, obviously, powering off complete saves money. So if saving as much on your bill as possible is the goal, then you must completely power off. And as agent_x007 points out, that means you must unplug from the wall or flip the master power switch on the back of your computer. Just shutting down, even with the front panel power button, is still putting your computer into a stand-by mode.

While PooPipeBoy's 1 watt suggest is a bit short, computers in standby don't draw very much - probably closer to 4-5W - less than many nightlights.

The thing is, you really need to look around your home and determine if completely shutting down your computer is really going to make a difference. It probably will not.

Remember, EVERYTHING in your home that uses a remote control to turn on, uses power in standby mode. If it has a clock, timer, or power on LED, it is in standby and is consuming power.

TVs consume 2 - 3W in standby
Microwave ovens, 2 - 3W
Computer monitors 1 - 3W
Printer 3 - 5W
Dishwasher 2 - 3W
Wireless modems 7 - 30W
Wireless routers 7 - 30W
Washing machines 4 - 7W
TV cable box 15 - 25W
Programmable coffee pot 1 - 3W
Every wall wart .5 - 2W each (even if nothing connected on output side)

The list goes on and on.

But when you consider your refrigerator - typically the most power hungry appliance in our homes, furnaces, hot water, air conditioner, and other devices that really affect our utility bills, unplugging your computer every night is not really going to impact your bill. It will put wear and tear on your power switches, however.

The thing is, globally speaking there is more to consider than my own power bill. Stuff like computers in standby is literally wasted power. Historically standby power has accounted for 5-10% of residential power use (this thing suggesting 11% for the EU), and this old paper suggested that standby power accounted for 2% of OECD countries, which adds up to many megawatts.

 

[yotano211]

The habit of unplugging when not in use could go back to her childhood - depending on her age and where she grew up.

Toasters are very high-wattage appliances and have a history of causing house fires - even when not in use. Also, because many toasters have a metal housing, if the outlet is faulty, touching the toaster with one-hand and the cold water faucet in the kitchen sink with the other can result in electrocution. Not good. Plus, leaving any appliance plugged in can give Mother Nature another path to wreck havoc during a lightning storm, should she decide to target your house.

Note this article is from 2009 - Pulling the Plug on Your Toaster (ezinearticles.com)

So your mom is probably mistaken when it comes to the power bill. But don't give her a hard time when it is fact, unplugging when not in use is the safer thing to do.

She is 70, grew up in Cuba, came to the US in 1985.
Wow, I wasn't expecting that article about house fires from toasters. I won't bug her anymore, in fact I'll give her a huge hug on your behave, then another one for me.

 

[djisas]

I let mine go to sleep whenever it wants, otherwise, just shutdown, it takes seconds to start up anyway, unlike the couple minutes it used to take on hdd, enough to make breakfast ...

 

[Bill_Bright]

The thing is, globally speaking there is more to consider than my own power bill.

I agree. If everybody on Earth would unplug all their electronics when not in use, it would make a huge impact (in a good way) on global warming, pollution, and other environmental issues. But humans like speed and convenience. So it ain't gonna happen.

I personally am not a tree-hugger but I do make an effort to turn off lights when I leave a room. My house is well insulated. If I'm cold, I'll put on warmer clothes instead of turning up the heat. But then I drive a full sized pickup truck with a gas guzzling V8 just to even things out!

 

[yotano211]

I agree. If everybody on Earth would unplug all their electronics when not in use, it would make a huge impact (in a good way) on global warming, pollution, and other environmental issues. But humans like speed and convenience. So it ain't gonna happen.

I personally am not a tree-hugger but I do make an effort to turn off lights when I leave a room. My house is well insulated. If I'm cold, I'll put on warmer clothes instead of turning up the heat. But then I drive a full sized pickup truck with a gas guzzling V8 just to even things out!

I drive a truck that gets 5mpg with a 42k lb load. My real car is a Prius.

 

[AusWolf]

I agree. If everybody on Earth would unplug all their electronics when not in use, it would make a huge impact (in a good way) on global warming, pollution, and other environmental issues. But humans like speed and convenience. So it ain't gonna happen.

I personally am not a tree-hugger but I do make an effort to turn off lights when I leave a room. My house is well insulated. If I'm cold, I'll put on warmer clothes instead of turning up the heat. But then I drive a full sized pickup truck with a gas guzzling V8 just to even things out!

I love cornering speed, stability and a generally good driving experience, so I drive a Fiesta ST. I also love fuel economy, so I drive a Fiesta ST.

Back to computers, the power options in your BIOS are also worth mentioning. With some options, your USB, LAN and PCI ports can stay awake for the "wake up by LAN" feature, or to enable phone charging while the PC is off. This also consumes power. If you turn the "ErP Ready" function on for example, all other options usually get disabled, and your PC completely shuts off when it's off, with no ports receiving any power.

 

[StaticVapour]

I find this comment odd. Are you having problems? The vast majority of people don't have problems just letting their computers go to sleep. I always just let mine go to sleep. Have essentially forever - decades.

As far as "you read" something, I assure you, if you look you can find that "________________" causes problems.

You talk about saving money on your electricity bill and then ask, "which is better". Well, obviously, powering off complete saves money. So if saving as much on your bill as possible is the goal, then you must completely power off. And as agent_x007 points out, that means you must unplug from the wall or flip the master power switch on the back of your computer. Just shutting down, even with the front panel power button, is still putting your computer into a stand-by mode.

While PooPipeBoy's 1 watt suggest is a bit short, computers in standby don't draw very much - probably closer to 4-5W - less than many nightlights.

The thing is, you really need to look around your home and determine if completely shutting down your computer is really going to make a difference. It probably will not.

Remember, EVERYTHING in your home that uses a remote control to turn on, uses power in standby mode. If it has a clock, timer, or power on LED, it is in standby and is consuming power.

TVs consume 2 - 3W in standby
Microwave ovens, 2 - 3W
Computer monitors 1 - 3W
Printer 3 - 5W
Dishwasher 2 - 3W
Wireless modems 7 - 30W
Wireless routers 7 - 30W
Washing machines 4 - 7W
TV cable box 15 - 25W
Programmable coffee pot 1 - 3W
Every wall wart .5 - 2W each (even if nothing connected on output side)

The list goes on and on.

But when you consider your refrigerator - typically the most power hungry appliance in our homes, furnaces, hot water, air conditioner, and other devices that really affect our utility bills, unplugging your computer every night is not really going to impact your bill. It will put wear and tear on your power switches, however.

That .5W - 2W for phone chargers as example idling, got the thinking to just flick the switch on power strip I have connected them. Quite much they use at idle..

Same here, I put my PC to sleep when I'm not using it / overnight. Been doing that for as long as I can remember.

 

[AsRock]

Hi,
Not much difference in hibernation and shut down power wise
Personally I shutdown to save ssd...

This^^.

Make very little difference to power usage.

 

[Ruru]

With SSDs, the boot times are so quick that I always shut down my PC.

 

[Bill_Bright]

With SSDs, the boot times are so quick that I always shut down my PC.

Unless you unplug from the wall, or flip the master power switch on the back of your PSU (if it has one), you are still just putting your computer in standby.

The ATX Form Factor standard requires all ATX power supplies to provide +5Vsb standby voltage to several points on the motherboard, unless all input power is removed (by unplugging or flipping that switch). With that +5Vsb voltage, the front panel power button would not work. Yes, it is a deeper standby state as compared to just letting it sleep, but you really are not saving much at all.

I've been using nothing but SSDs for ~6 years now. And I just let my PCs go to sleep. I note DDR4 RAM in particular is designed to support lower voltage during standby mode, holding some critical data while in standby for even faster wake times.

I say, since SSDs do boot so quickly, why not take full advantage of their speeds? You paid for it!