To turn off or not to turn off?

[Technical Ben]

I tend to try and keep all my electrical equipment turned off or unplugged when not in use. To save on the cost of my electric and stuff.
The question is, would this be best practice for a Broad band router/hub? Would I be stressing out BT's equipment with all the reconnects? I tend to turn the router on once a day, and leave it off all other times. I have not had any connection, ping or speed problems yet. But this may just be because my line is relatively stable right now, this might change with WBC.

Anyone know if I should just leave it on?

[Glenn]

Personally I leave mine turned on 24/7

[Rik]

Same here, Ben, but turning in on and off once a day shouldn't present any problems. For me, though, I never know when I'll want access at night, so I don't want the problems a low-speed sync at night might cause.

[john]

I leave mine turned on all the time, it doesn't give the power consumption in the spec but the mains adapter is rated at 12volts at 1 amp so that's a maximum of 12 watts but it is likely to use a lot less than that. I've never been persuaded to turn other equipment like TV's and PVR's off etc as modern ones usually only consume less than a watt in standby and the electronic programme guide usually updates itself during the night.

[Rik]

Plus the stress of the power cycle is when most components fail, John.

[john]

I agree Rik, when we used a mainframe system with terminals in the early eighties we had a hardware engineer on site and he recommended that they were left on all the time as otherwise the frequent expansion and contraction of components as they were heated up and cooled down when switched on and off was often the reason they eventually failed.

[Rik]

The only thing I would recommend is running electronic equipment through a power-conditioning UPS. Killing off the spikes and preventing brownouts does a lot to extend the life, and reliability, of the connected equipment.

[quandam]

I leave mine turned on all the time, it doesn't give the power consumption in the spec but the mains adapter is rated at 12volts at 1 amp so that's a maximum of 12 watts but it is likely to use a lot less than that. I've never been persuaded to turn other equipment like TV's and PVR's off etc as modern ones usually only consume less than a watt in standby and the electronic programme guide usually updates itself during the night.

Well said John An extremely common sense view of the situation, totally agree with every word you have typed

[john]

  Q (what a strange feeling it is when someone agrees with you, it doesn't happen very often with me  )

[Simon]

I leave mine on 24/7 as well.  I don't leave the TV in standby, though, as for some reason, I feel better switching it off when not in use.

[Ann]

I'm with Simon.  I don't leave the TV on all the time but I do leave the router on.  Except when I go away for a few days, then I turn it off.  Daft that really as I'll happily go to work and leave it on but being away overnight seems different.

[dujas]

Buy a Plug-In Energy Monitor if standby consumption is a concern. I find most of my gadgets consume too little electricity to make a noticeable difference, the condensing tumble drier on the other hand..

[Rik]

I'd never leave a TV in standby, partly because I'm old enough to remember what the old CRT sets could do if anything went wrong. OTOH, things like Sky boxes and PVRs need to be in standby to function fully.

[Gary]

I never leave my TV and AV amp in standbye, the amp is used for films and then only some, so its better to use it and then turn it off than leave it in standbye for days. Sky HD and the like need to be and my router is on 24/7, the TV and all audio equipment runs though a power conditioner as well.