Our new place, we’ve been here now for two years, is built according to “Minergie” standards. It is incredibly insulated, virtually airtight (uses an air/heat exchanger), has floor heating throughout which alone saves a lot on heating bills due to it’s higher efficiency. All appliances are high efficiency-low energy. Induction cooking range is amazing, convection oven, microwave, CFLs, LED, and LV-halogen lighting. We have no actual furnace or heating in the house, There is a farm accross the street which has invested in a huge wood pellet heating system, and provides district heating for the entire area.
Because my studio is in in place and I live in other.
Sometimes I need to access sessions to bounce off, or files to edit, and in this way I just use WOL (well more like WOI) and turn on my studio PC with my phone and access it using TeamViewer.
BTW There’s some differences between suspended modes S3, S4, etc
S1 (CPU stopped, RAM refreshed, running in low power mode)
S2 (CPU off, RAM refreshed, running in a lower power mode than S1)
S3 (traditional Standby, with the CPU off and RAM in slow refresh)
S4 (Hibernate, with the hardware off and system memory saved as a temporary file)
Like Jarno, awhile back I calculated the cost of leaving it on 24/7. I live in the States, where energy is relatively cheap, and of course, such calculations are estimates at best. But I found it didn’t cost all that much leaving it on. I turn it off every few days, just to let it rest
I met a few retires in Tennessee who are part of the Tennessee Valley Authority…their bills are like yours. The last bill I had under $50 was in 1977 in a 1 bedroom apartment with a window air conditioner.
I live in TN and indeed our socialized power system operate at a lower cost, (more effective and efficient) than private companies in USA like Duke power. Just my opinion
It’s not really about the cost for me, I just assume that each device has certain amount of hours prior to it failing therefore I hope that not running when I’m not using will extend the reliability of my hardware.
My neighbor across street always left his studio on. During a storm there was a spike or lighting strike that somehow caused his power supply to catch on fire destroying his home. Six months living in hotels and fighting with Nationwide and calling State insurance commissioners before they finally settled and rebuilt. I’m not takin that chance lol
And know that even if your gear is powered down, a spike can still hit it. Also, if you have something plugged in, like a tube microphone power supply or a bass cab that has its d.I. and you have these connected to the rig, a spike can travel in the I/o to gear that isn’t plugged in.
A computer’s CPU definitely has a lifespan, due to the heat that it generates; eventually it will begin to not operate correctly (at least this is what I’ve read)