Assume the average computer user’s wage is $21 per hour, and take the old estimate that time is valued at one-third of the wage. So each person’s time per year turning his/her computer off and on is worth 20 x $7 = $140. I’m being conservative and assuming only 50 million U.S. computer users. That gives a cost of turning computers off/on of 50,000,000 x $140 = $7 billion, which is 2.5 times the alleged savings from turning computers off. Even if people’s time were valued at only $3 per hour (less than half the minimum wage), leaving computers on would still make sense.While there are some good comments in there debating the validity of the argument, I agree with it pretty throughly, just from personal experience. At my job, it's standard procedure (actually mandated procedure) to turn your computer off when you leave work (a process which I frequently have to supervise, due to the age of my machine and the error prompts that show up in the course of shutdown procedures), which means you have to turn your computer on in the morning as well. Despite what some of the commenters say, this period is entirely unproductive time, and it frequently takes me as long as 15 minutes before my computer is to the point where I can start working on it (old hardware rears its ugly head again). My work is almost exclusively computer-based, so even if I were to get up and get a cup of coffee it's STILL unproductive time, and it actually induces FURTHER unproductivity, in that I'm pissed at my computer every morning, and so less inclined to start work right away. His figure is lowballing it, in my opinion.
So leave your computers on at night, ladies and gentlemen. Your wallets demand it.
(via Freakonomics Blog)
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