Why it’s Smart
Extend the life of your appliances
For a long time it has been an urban myth that turning off hi-tech modern appliances, like computers and home theatre systems, shortened their life.
Some users still are under the impression that turning off their computer does more harm than good. Modern computers are designed to withstand frequent shut offs.
“The belief that frequent shutdowns are harmful persists from the days when hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off; frequent on-off cycling could damage such hard disks. Conventional wisdom, however, has not kept pace with the rapid technological change in the computer industry. Modern hard disks are not significantly affected by frequent shutdowns.”
(Source: “User Guide to Power Management for PCs and Monitors”, Bruce Nordman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, January, 1997, LBNL-39466)
“Modern computers are designed to handle 40,000 on-off cycles before failure, and you’re not likely to approach that number during the average computer’s five- to seven-year life span. In fact, IBM and Hewlett Packard encourage their own employees to turn off idle computers, and some studies indicate it would require on-off cycling every five minutes to harm a hard drive …”
(Source: Rocky Mountain Institute Home Energy Brief #7 Computers and Peripherals.)