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Older  electronics you didn't just leave on.. You had to shut it down to save tube life etc... On the home mixers  now-adays that you run into your computers,  do you leave these turned on and just turn volume down when not in use,  or do you turn them off after use ?  Does it matter ?  I'm wondering if it matter whether or not I turn off the newer mixers after use for the day

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Ideally, electronics should stay on, they will last much longer! what shorten their life is the change of temperature and letting the capacitor looses their charges... By staying on, they maintain the same temp and therefore age better, it's the reason I'm always on

Wouldn't that be 6 of one and half dozen of another.   The longer anything stays on the shorter the life expectancy would be, just from wear.  Yes or no?    A gasoline engine can not take the punishment of a diesel motor.    One can idle forever and one will blow up.

Leaving anything constantly on, has to take some kind of a toll.   Everything degrades over time.

Even diesel motors need to be rebuilt sooner or later.

Interesting question. I argue with SO over leaving things on...he tells me 'costs too much.'  I say there are only so many "off and on" clicks something can tolerate. But I also drive a diesel, leave it running a lot .

kk

Typically, it's better to turn off.  If the device has no moving part, i.e. all electronics, including digital chips and analog capacitors, you are better off turning it off when not using. Besides the electric bills, the constant on may create higher temperature and that's what's going to hurt the Integrated Circuits or chips. Change of temperature has very little, if any, to do with degradation of electronic parts, unless your gradient (how fast the temperature changes) is quick. In most indoor settings, and most outdoor settings, temperature doesn't change fast enough to do any damage to the circuits. So, unless you are taking just turned off equipment in to a below freezing temperature right away, you should be OK.

Now, turning it off has it's own perils. The most of the power spike that can kill the electronics are created mostly when turning the device on or off. However, the modern power supplies usually do a great job of not creating these spikes and protect the circuits.

If the device has moving parts, like hard disk drives, continuous spinning will eventually wear out the mechanical parts, thus shortening the life of the device.

The bottom line, keep it off. You will save electricity and be better for the environment.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I've heard the argument that certain devices get more wear from the process of turning them on and off -than from leaving them on -electronics is MUCH different today than 40 years back- (during surge conditions of course you'd wish to unplug them)

But I'm asking because I don't personally know urban legend from fact when it comes to newer electronics






Sidewinder,  but this is my whole point,  solid-state electronics and LED's are MUCH different from the old days of mechanical engineering, or when analog devices had tubes, and parts that needed routine maint... and a car engine has parts that wearout and demand routine replacement such as rubber hoses, gaskets, moving parts must be lubed, coolants added...a tube device isn't the same as transister stuff...  Newer stuff is quite different

Hence my question...  barring surges of course... some never shut their computers off, and other transister devices...  Whole different age..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Since I have both tube, solid-state and even hybrid equip, I don't know what to do with what anymore..

I don't even know what "Solid state" means.   There is an initial "burnin" period for computers and stuff, right ?  around 72 hours ?   What's the purpose ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Burn-in is usually not an issue any more with everything being low-power.

Nowadays, I turn it off to reduce power consumption. Of course I practice with the contents of a 10-space rack, so it consumes some serious power.

But with today's low-power circuits, a lot of the old arguments just don't apply anymore. I would think that if you are concerned most with the mixer lasting, don't turn it off. But it isn't that big a deal either way.

With tubes it was the filaments that were sensitive to shutdowns or power surges. Radars and other transmitters had a powerup and shutdown sequence a sudden loss of power when with full power 4 MW was destructive. Its like bending a wire back and forth until it breaks.

So radars had a standby mode whereby the filament voltage was reduced 50% and hardly ever was shut down unless for maintenence. Even some of the old tv's had a feature where the filaments were always powered with half voltage. They had a vacation switch in the back which turned them all the way off.

How many times have you turned on a light and the bulb popped instantly?

With solid state gear if it has been in freezing temps take it inside and let it warm up awhile before powering up. With an adequate power supply it makes no difference with solid state

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I turn mine off. Even if low power is being used, it's a constant source, and just for the conservation of energy, I do that.

You wanna see something? Watch your electric bills when you turn off ALL applainces that use infra-red devices, such as televisions, vcrs, dvd players, home audio... the standby mode consumes a little energy. But after a month or two of turning the outlet off (power strip) when not in use, you'll see a bit of a drop in your use!

As for the lifeline of modern electronics, to me, the safe rule is, when not in use, turn it off!!

Most servers are never switched off except for maintenance reboots.
They mostly have built in redundancy,
but rarely if ever use it.
Server farms do however use air conditioning.