[mythtv-users] Where is Jarod's guide to automatic shutdown and restart?

Peter Loron peterl at standingwave.org
Thu Mar 17 19:03:40 UTC 2005


Partly it is an expense. In some places (like California), electricity 
is very expensive. Having a 100+ watt machine on all the time adds up. 
You also are pumping heat into the room, which you may be paying again 
to extract with your air conditioning.

Aside from any cost constraints, there's the environmental aspect: 
you're using energy that you don't need to use, and it probably comes 
from burning fossil fuel. If it's not a big hassle, just stop doing it. 
Like turning off the lights when you leave a room or the heater/ac when 
you're not at home.

You have a point about powering the box on and off being harder on the 
components than just leaving it on all the time. If you are doing a 
bunch of recording during each day, then it probably is best to just 
leave the machine on. In my case I'll often go > 24 hours between 
recordings, sometimes several days. Not much of a reason to leave the 
machine on when it is busy a few % of the time. The components of the 
system are designed to deal with some power cycling. Typically new 
components either fail quickly or they last. Usually you'll be able to 
get them replaced under warranty when they puke. Aside from a rash of 
bad hard drives (replaced under warranty, run in a 24x7 box), I almost 
never have had a component die before it is retired during an upgrade.

Interesting OT research topic: where is the line between leaving the 
machine on all the time and power cycling? It seems like there's a point 
where the wear from being on without being used much is more than the 
wear from startup for those occasional uses would be. Can anybody point 
to data?

-Pete

John Andersen wrote:
> On Tuesday 15 March 2005 21:43, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> 
>>On Monday 14 March 2005 04:21, Phill Edwards wrote:
>>
>>>I went looking for this as nvram-wakeup's not working for me any more
>>>for some reason, and I remembered that Jarod uses wake-on-lan from
>>>another machine.
>>
>>I think you may have me confused with someone else, I've never used WOL.
>>All my boxes are just on 24x7.
> 
> 
> Often wondered about why people are so concerned about WOL
> for a myth box.  Where is Electricity so expensive that leaving it
> on 24/7 is a problem?
> 
> If you turn off the monitor you kill off 80% of the electricity usage
> anyway. 
> 
> I've metered boxes doing nothing.  They draw squat.
> Its harder on the machine being powered on and off all the 
> time than it is to just leave it on.
> 
> 
> 
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