Leaving AV equipment ON all the time.

[ernie00]

I've been wondering what people think about this. Do you leave all of you AV equipment ON when not using it? Or do you close it?

Is there advantages or inconvenients for both ?

Thanks

Eric

 

[tomd51]

Good question...

This is something I've considered myself... I imagine its not suggested to leave displays and other equipment with moving parts or components that can wear down or burn out over a short period of time (1-5 years), such as projector bulbs, .

Other than consuming the small amount of power required by each device when idle (no signal), I can't see how this could be a negative unless you consider longevity of the components. Even then, by the time they start crapping out, chances are they'll have provided the return on investment you've made by then or exceeded their life expectancy or usefulness.

The only things I leave on constantly are my sub and separate amps. Neither (to my knowledge) have moving parts that could wear down over time due to constant operation, but I've been known to be wrong before... once... -TD

 

[niget2002]

All my components either switch to standby, or turn themselves off when not being used.

This being said. I leave all my equipment on standby. I do turn the tv off. When going on a long vacation I'll sometimes unplug the surge protector so no power is going to anything. I usually get a call when I do this though, because my house sitter will forget, and she'll call me asking how come it's not working

 

[mikemorrow]

I turn mine off.

 

[Hi Ho]

I turn all of my A/V equipment off when not in use.

My PC's are a different story. I leave them on 24/7. It's better for the hard drives to leave them running all the time rather than turning them on and off.

 

[supervij]

My receiver gets kinda hot when I leave it on for extended periods. Not frighteningly hot, but more of a kind of whoa-that's-frickin'-hot-is-it-supposed-to-get-that-hot? thing. My DVD player shuts itself off after fifteen minutes or so of inactivity. And I generally shut everything off anyway if I'm not going to be using it for about that long.

cheers,
supervij

 

[Sheep]

I leave my reciever on alot. No biggie, nothing playing.

SheepStar

 

[AudioArcher]

Heat

If I can feel any higher temperature than ambient on any piece of equipment, I turn it off, otherwise I leave it on. I leave my computer in standby though.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I've been wondering what people think about this. Do you leave all of you AV equipment ON when not using it? Or do you close it?

Is there advantages or inconvenients for both ?

Thanks

Eric

Turn it off. I presume you didn't mean standby, right, but on with volume down, no signal. If so, it is similar to a light bulb, It has so many hours on it running 24/7. But if you shut it off half the time, you increase its calendar life time by almost 2, and so forth.

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

Everything gets shut off on mine. Furthermore, the receiver and sub are completely disconnected of any power when I kill the power center. It helps me sleep at night when I know there is no way in hell that my receiver is going to get fried.

~Chuck

 

[Sheep]

Everything gets shut off on mine. Furthermore, the receiver and sub are completely disconnected of any power when I kill the power center. It helps me sleep at night when I know there is no way in hell that my receiver is going to get fried.

~Chuck

Make sure you unplug the power center, cause it is not supposed to handle, you know, surges...

SheepStar

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

Make sure you unplug the power center, cause it is not supposed to handle, you know, surges...

SheepStar

Smartass.

~Chuck

 

[The Numenorian]

play nice sheep

i usually turn off all my a/v equipment, 'cept for the subwoofer because it's a piece of junk. don't want to pay anymore on the electric bill than i have to, even if it is next to nothing...every penny counts, right?

 

[Johnd]

Off! Or standby. The question one needs to ask is "What is the advantage of leaving electronics on 24-7?", and "What major inconvenience is it to turn them all on?". The answer is "One button for me and my pronto." Believe me, most consumer electronics are not made to be on 24-7. It's just not good for the circuitry, not to mention the wallet. Not even home computers. Some good commercial/industrial exceptions are servers and tungsten halogen bulbs. Generally, a manufacturer must list if it is rated for constant voltage or constant operation.

 

[lithnights]

Off! Or standby. The question one needs to ask is "What is the advantage of leaving electronics on 24-7?", and "What major inconvenience is it to turn them all on?". The answer is "One button for me and my pronto." Believe me, most consumer electronics are not made to be on 24-7. It's just not good for the circuitry, not to mention the wallet. Not even home computers. Some good commercial/industrial exceptions are servers and tungsten halogen bulbs. Generally, a manufacturer must list if it is rated for constant voltage or constant operation.

A very interesting discussion here... now my question is this...

At what point is it beneficial to turn the receiver off? after 15 minutes of non-use, one hour of non-use, 4 hours of non-use etc.???

e.g. if I am running out for one hour, do I turn it off? If I'm running out for the day, do I turn it off?

I've never been clear on that... and I assume receivers are different than TVs which are different than PCs???

 

[Hi Ho]

One of the main theories supporting leaving electronics on is that the expansion and contraction from heating and cooling cycles is what causes failure.

Personally, as I said above, I don't worry about it with most of my electronics but I have always left my PC's on 24/7 and I have never had a failure of any kind. I have hard drives that have been running non stop for nearly 10 years and still work fine. Whether it prolongs the life or not, I set my antivirus and defrag programs to run at night when they won't bug me.

Coincidentally, two hard drives that were in a secondary computer that was turned on and off often died within 2 years and the motherboard went bad not long after.

 

[mtrycrafts]

A very interesting discussion here... now my question is this...

At what point is it beneficial to turn the receiver off? after 15 minutes of non-use, one hour of non-use, 4 hours of non-use etc.???

e.g. if I am running out for one hour, do I turn it off? If I'm running out for the day, do I turn it off?

I've never been clear on that... and I assume receivers are different than TVs which are different than PCs???

Certainly if you run out for the day. One hour? I would but, 1 hr in standby? Now, if you do this frequently, I would turn it off every time.

 

[sjdgpt]

Check the owner's manual.

Yes, some manuals really sux, but that is a complaint for another time.

Most half way decent manuals will describe the standby mode and when it should be used.

Most people can understand the wear and tear of on/off switches. Standby mode minimizes that type of wear. There are other circuits and components that need a warm up period and the standby mode will result in less wear and tear on those parts.

The standby mode usually does not consume a great deal of power, so power consumption is not an issue.


For my office computers, we shut down for 24+ hour periods. Overnight periods are left in the standby mode which is the recommendation of the computer manufacturer.

My home receiver stays in standby mode (Denon recommendation), unless I am leaving town for a period of time or thunderstorm hell is going to happen that day.

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

One of the main theories supporting leaving electronics on is that the expansion and contraction from heating and cooling cycles is what causes failure.

Personally, as I said above, I don't worry about it with most of my electronics but I have always left my PC's on 24/7 and I have never had a failure of any kind. I have hard drives that have been running non stop for nearly 10 years and still work fine. Whether it prolongs the life or not, I set my antivirus and defrag programs to run at night when they won't bug me.

Coincidentally, two hard drives that were in a secondary computer that was turned on and off often died within 2 years and the motherboard went bad not long after.

On the flip side, my old computer (circa April of 99), was always turned off and got used daily and it still runs like a champ... Well as much as 400Mhz can do.

~Chuck

 

[corey]

Turn it off. I presume you didn't mean standby, right, but on with volume down, no signal. If so, it is similar to a light bulb, It has so many hours on it running 24/7. But if you shut it off half the time, you increase its calendar life time by almost 2, and so forth.

You seem to be saying that if you have 2 similar incanecent light bulbs, one that is turned on/off every 100 hours and one that is turned on/off every 10 seconds; that they will have the same total hours of on time. I'm not going to do the test, but I urge you to.