I am wondering if unplugging electrical devices action would help reduce the wear and tear that may occur when devices are continuously connected to power, or if it would actually be counterproductive.
I am currently considering connecting my laptop, monitor, TV, and sound system to a timer-enabled plug. This way, they would automatically turn off at around 12:00 pm and turn on again at 6:00 am.
Thanks a bunch
ahhhh..
Good old JV!
Care to elaborate?
no
ahhhh..
Good old JV!
Feel free to ignore my post then!
agree 100%
Ive lost 2 TVs due to switching off the power.
These days they are designed to be left connected to power and switched off via remote to "sleep state".
for a computer or laptop, configure it to suspend after 5 minutes or so
It will ruin the SSD.
how so?
In hibernation, the computer's state is writen to the SSD and powered down. There are many suggestions to never use hibernation with an SSD and in fact, would be better to power down the system (change "what happens when I close the cover" to shut down) because the start up is pretty fast compared to a platter drive.
@GrungyGirl: Hibernation would write the ram contents to the SSD . Sleep shouldn't have any impact on the SSD line.
Anecdotally, I let my laptops sleep and haven't had any issues with the SSD life.
@GrungyGirl: i think you are misinformed. i meant suspend or sleep to a low-power state. all my computers are set to blank their screens after a minute or two and then suspend after another couple of minutes, soley to conserve power. suspend != hybernate
@GrungyGirl: modern SSD's can tolerate a huge number of writes. Refer to the experiment done 8 years ago, most of the SSD's from that time period actually lasted well beyond the rated amount of writes
https://www.guru3d.com/story/endurance-test-of-samsung-850-p…
If you were using the most jankiest SSD's from Aliexpress and Wish.com then yeah I'd be worried about endurance but even a mid-range Samsung 860 can write multiple petabytes of data before giving up entirely.
@GrungyGirl: Unless you have a particularly crap SSD you could do this for many years before it even makes a dent on the lifespan of the drive. The data is also compressed, so it takes up less space.
If you wrote 8GB every day for 10 years, that's 29TB written. Even crap drives are at least 100TBW as a minimum. Reality is SSD life span in terms of memory wear just isn't a consideration anymore.
Just configure it to sleep if it bothers you though. It uses minimal power overnight to keep the data alive in memory, the strain of that power use would be near nothing. Leave it unplugged the battery can just slowly drain (it'd last for days in sleep mode and if it runs out of battery it just hibernates anyway).
@GrungyGirl: Sleep and Hibernate are totally different things. Sleep writes to ram and uses more power to maintain ram state. Hibernate writes to drive and essentially shutting off. The power saving modes like powering down monitor, drive etc, is usually Sleep. These days modern PC/Laptops still have the hibernate option but it is much harder to find it now. Sleeping for laptops is just closing the lid.
These days modern PC/Laptops still have the hibernate option but it is much harder to find it now
pretty sure the default windows shutdown behaviour now is a sort of hibernation (e.g. Fast startup), and you dont get a full shutdown unless you hold shift pressing shut down.
I don't think anyone has ever done a study on whether electronics last longer if they are completely unpowered vs being put on standby mode. I've used and disposed of a lot of old electronics (working in IT, decommissioning more than decade old desktops, monitors, printers and telephone systems). All of them used in a normal office environment and with much greater wear / tear than home use stuff — the majority of them still work fine, and they are usually decommed because they're old / slow.
But putting devices on a timer could potentially save a bit of power. If you are struggling to pay your electricity bills then getting rid of the vampire power (standby power) can save a few dollars here and there.
Not in any meaningful way.
It may be counterproductive due to thermal change or charging of capacitors when initially powered on.
For the laptop, make sure the battery health option is enabled, especially if not being taken out of the house.
I lean slightly toward the view that thermal expansion and contraction is a leading cause of component failure. So your devices may live longer if allowed to remain in standby state compared with being powered off. Risk/reward equation is poor. I tried this using a smart power point and coincidentally one of my home theatre receivers faulted.
I have an old Sony radio that is constantly plugged in standby with the occasional use. It is still working after 20 years.
Depending on the product, I've heard it can burn out the capacitors for long extended periods of up-time and extra wear and tear when the device isn't actually being used. I'm not a scientist but it's what I've been told :/
The consensus from the retro computing people seems to be that the most likely items to fail are capacitors, especially in the power supply circuitry, and back-up batteries.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to matter if stuff was in use or stored, there are gradual chemical reactions happening in both.
The vintage audio people see faults in 60s and 70s audio gear the same, plus transistors.
Anecdotally, spinning hard drives are pretty fragile, though I have old systems that still boot from the 1990s, but also plenty that have died.
So my conclusion is it doesn’t have a big impact for solid state stuff.
Just do it
A few months back we had a power issue, and were getting something like 90v through the mains power. When the power was restored, my router has died. Prior to that, i cant think of any devices that had power supplies fail in my house. If i had my time again, i'd switch the mains breaker off until they fixed the issue/
At work, the mine sites that have inconsistent power (brownouts etc) seem to go through slightly more devices…maybe.
I think you switching it off would be more about that parasitic drain. With better technology this should be even less than it used to be, and marginal. I had a play with my PC bios settings and got it from 5w to 1w.
Shrugs, if you want to unplug, just do it.
A few months back we had a power issue, and were getting something like 90v through the mains power. When the power was restored, my router has died. Prior to that, i cant think of any devices that had power supplies fail in my house. If i had my time again, i'd switch the mains breaker off until they fixed the issue/
Time for a UPS.
I now have 2. However the cost of the ups significantly outweighs the loss of a single power supply
But didn't it kill your router? Or just the PSU?
I guess it depends on the equipment you want to protect. I have a Ubiquti Dream Machine worth $800 ish or something plus switches etc, so a $500 UPS is worth the investment.
@geekcohen: Didn't kill the router, just the power supply (that powers the router)
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite. Went to my man drawer, grabbed another power supply. Then a few days later went to Jaycar and bought an overkill psu (Meanwell) that is more reliable.
Now I have $350 worth of UPS', because i lost $25 of equipment. I'm just not sure it's worth it.
Insurance excess is $600
@Davo1111: Ah, sounded like it killed your router.
I haven't had any equipment die but I've got surge protectors on all technology plus a UPS on my Desktop and another on my networking gear for the house.
I guess there is always insurance, but a big pain in the backside to go through that process.
Ah, sounded like it killed your router.
on reflection after reading my comment again, yes, you're right.
Probable for most things with a motor.
Should not be done for anything with a pump. This includes fridges and air-cons.
I've had fuses blow from unplugging. For this reason, I wouldn't unplug the monitor and TV. Those devices have to meet European energy standards so do not draw much current in standby anyway and won't extend their lifespan.
Batteries also degrade if kept on charge.
In my experience changing the temperature of electronics shortens its life. I keep all my stuff on, or stand-by, never powered off. I've seen equipment fail when connected to so-called energy-saving power boards. Think about when your stuff fails - it almost always goes 'pop' when you power it up. So don't.
As a sometimes reliability engineer, strictly speaking, there is not a lot of evidence one way or the other. There are many factors in play such as the quality of the fundamental design, the quality of the power being supplied, temperature, electro-mechanical components etc.
Having said that, the reliability of electronics is very good so I would not expect problems with appliances such as those identified would be fine. Having said that, just remember a failure could happen at any time. Usually right when you "need" that thing to work.
I reciently went through a huge ordeal with my Sony Bravia smart TV.
I had a similar thought as OP, save power consumption using a wifi enabled smart meter.
Tv, playstation, Amp and Sub all switched off at night….
Well well, let me tell you those smart meters simply just cut the power, similar to a power outage.
Now no big deal i thought, surely appliances can handle that situation, designed for it i thought ..
Well, not included in a 2000 dollar plus (smart) tv is the ability to handle power outages. Not so smart after all.
Somewhere in the programming is a glitch or a weakness and it caused my tv to simply not connect to the wifi anymore. This lasted 1 week of pain and suffering trying everything from factory resets on tv and modem, calling isp, ringing sony, nearly sent it away for repairs..
Its all over forums and i fixed the issue by changing my wifi modem to a newer modern mesh system which was happening anyways.
TLDR . Dont cut the power to your (smart) tv ever!!!!!
No
Being plugged in doesn't mean they're "continuously connected to power" - they aren't on. They're drawing zero watts. Nothing is happening there.
Turning them off literally does nothing
Most are in standby, waiting for a IR signal (from a remote) or a push button (not a mechanical rocker) or a received "signal" in general (App) to become active.
The power consumption is negligible but they are active, waiting to be fully powered on.
Open the box and touch the insides to confirm. Actually, NO better don't. Could be electrocution by curiosity.
Better to power on and never turn off.
or if it would actually be counterproductive.
Counterproductive.
Electronic devices don't like to be powered on (as in receiving AC) and off repeatedly. Something about capacitors and the rest of the electronics.
Most modern devices are constantly ACTIVE, not fully power on but certainly LIVE.
That's why they react to a remote sending a signal to fully power them on rather than a mechanical switch.
The opposite will be an old light switch.
When off is certainly off and not in standby like electronics devices would.
If going away for weeks or longer then yes, unplug from the power point (safer for electrical storms too).
EDIT: my PC is always on, not sleep or idle but fully on. I turn off the monitor 'cause the light bothers me.
If it's my main tv, laptop and stereo they stay on standby mode. But if it's the second tv or xbox that i use occasionally i switch off at the wall.
no