G5 using too much power...

Why do so many people leave their computer on, usually in sleep mode?
This certainly get around the issue of power draw when not in use!

Yup, as the posters above make clear, we are taking about considerable energy use when the Mac is switched off. Top marks to the individual that suggests turning them off at the power strip. Has that been tested as good?

To answer your other question, " Why do so many people leave their computer on ? " ; the debate is largely about what is worse, using up energy or the cost of wearing out your computer quicker ?

General opinion is that, as with virtually all machines, the most wear and tear is done to your Mac when you start it up after it has been shut down.
That is to say, that the heating up [ expansion ] and cooling down [ contraction ] wears and damages all the tiny solders that hold your computer together until eventually one or more crack and fail.

Therefore, it is better health to keep your Mac at a constant warmth [ expanded ] and leave it that way unless, perhaps, you are going away for an extended time.

A compromise might be to leave it and leave it doing something useful like a " Folding@home " type of distributed computing project. [ e.g. http://teammacosx.com/ ].

This debate goes back to when computers were hugely expensive and expected to last many years. How the Maths pan out now that they are relatively disposable consumer units, I don't know.

I leave mine on and have them computing which is more than they do when I email or surf!

Strange about this thread but I am starting to think exactly the same about my G5 here in the UK. When I first moved into my house I was using 500-600 units/kWh a quarter. My G5 came in October 2003 and over the last 5 quarters I have had bills with usage between 1100-1400 kWh. Over that time I have had similar equipment in use ie lights/cooker/refridgerator/tumble dryer. I was putting the increase down to the tumble dryer because we have used it a lot more (we think!) Howver I am really thinking twice about this and will be shutting the G5, associated airport & modem down over a week's period and then leaving them on 24/7 to compare.

I just measured my G5 Dual 2.0 workstation with a Kill a Watt usage monitor and was very surprised by the consumption. When the workstation is running full out it consumes 675 watts of power. Here in NYC, 24-7 operation is just about $90.00 per month. Of course my G5 is loaded with 6 gigs of ram, 5 internal 250 gig drives dual 24" LCD displays, 500 gig external dive, and lot's of electronic doodads so maybe my usage is a little higher than the average G5 owner.

As long as you have a kill-o-watt meter, could you take measurements at sleep, turned off, monitor on/off, etc... Would be interesting to see some additional measurements.

Tom N.

"Is there some device or software that can help find that info."

Yes, and here's link.

http://www.smarthome.com/9034.html

It's called the "Kill A Watt" and costs about $40. It measures watts, kwh, amps, volts, and power factor. I found one online for $28. It is a big help in determining how much a given device is costing you, and how to determine what size UPS you need for your setup. It's a tool every household should have.

Good points Tom but I wonder how many people that say they turn "Off" their computers rather than sleeping them actually turn off both the computer and then the power supply strip or UPS.

Not many I bet.

Seeing the above mentioned 30+ watts of "parasitic" off usage makes me think that perhaps off/off is not a bad idea, especially if it will be down for awhile.

Jon,

To me, running full time consuming 400-600 watts power hardly seems like a compromise!

Also I have heard the "heat cycle" argument many times but I have to think back to the last time a computer "wore out" on me. Every one I have had since my original TRS-80 in 1978 have all gone to oblivion as obsolete not worn out..

I think after reading the consumption figures in this thread that my personal strategy in the future will be to "Sleep" as before except when I am leaving the computer for a few days then I will turn it off and also turn off the UPS strip.

Fluke UK confirm that a relatively simple, and intrusive, device like the '73' used for the measurements above, would probably not give accurate results with a sophisticated power supply. The 43B is designed for this complex type of application (and this is reflected in the cost).

Could you ask the Danish guy to measure 'off', 'sleep' and 'idle', so we can all sleep (and idle) more easily?

BTW - wonder what the measurements are here:

http://music.calarts.edu/~cbaker/files/html/ccfl/

Here are the measuments for my G5 (DP 2.0/2GB/250GB+160GB HD)

Off 0.9W
Sleeping 6.8W
Idle (energy setting: automatic) 145W
Idle (energy setting: highest) 188W

BTW I 've used a Voltcraft Energy Check 3000 for the measurements

http://tinyurl.com/d9xss

Thank you. That's reassuring. Feeling sleepy already...

Please forgive my linguistic shortcomings - but I can't read the reference.
Can you translate?

Thanks again.

You can download the German/English manual here:

http://tinyurl.com/c9lme

Actually, that's not out of line with the results from my cheap kill o watt, which does go up and down immediately with CPU intensive stuff on the Power Mac.

Hi everyone,

I have found this topic particularly interesting. Whether to leave the computer on or turn it off has been something that I have pondered a lot. I tend to turn it off
i) because of power usage
i) concerned with safety reasons - fire etc

Maybe, I am a little extreme but I even pull the plug out most nights! Generally, I leave it on for a night every so often so that it can go through its housekeeping rituals. I'd be interested in what others do.

cheers
Houston

Some discussion of that thorny perennial here:

Stefan Weibel, "AC Power to G5: Power supply question", 04:46pm Aug 1, 2005 CDT

and here:

Jake Sadowski, "Leaving My Comp up Indefintatly Pro's and Con's", 12:15pm Jul 12, 2005 CDT