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Date:	Thu, 24 Jan 2002 16:46:02 PST7
From:	Steve Carter <scarter@vcnet.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Monitor Glitch

Content Type: text/plain

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There's yet another side to this coin ....

My wife's a teacher at an under-funded community college.
Their department has no computer budget and they depend
on cast-off and donation computer equipment. Over the
years, many of my home hand-me-downs have found a new
life there.

Recently they were thrilled to receive over thirty 200MHz
Pentium Pros from UCLA. The monitors had been left ON
24/7 for years and years. The CRTs had used up all the
life in their filaments and no longer burned hot enough
to provide adequate cathode emission -- their screens were
VERY dim. We left them on for about an hour and selected
the very best, and they were only barely usable, and only
after a long warm-up. Perhaps you remember color TV picture
tubes from your childhood.

The rest, over half, were consigned to basement storage, in
hopes that some sort of rejuvenation mechanism could be arranged.
I priced it at $50 each, which was more than their budget could
stand, even with an "educational" discount. So the 20 or so
way-too-dim monitors sit in the basement awaiting resurrection
or the second coming or the dust bin, whichever comes first.

It is worth mentioning that these monitors were old enough
not to have any energy star, green, features. No timed,
automatic power-down features at all. A good monitor might well
outlast a few major computer upgrades.

Your mileage may vary; I hope so. Like Jordan, I turn my monitor off
at night and when I don't expect to be using it for a period of time.
I pay to air-condition my office (in the summer) and it seems silly
to pay to both heat it up and to cool it off (winter is different).

+++++++++++++++++++
On 01/21/02, Peter wrote, in part:
>J. R. Fox wrote:
>> The computer tends to be on 24/7, but the monitor
>> I generally turn off overnight, or if there will be
>> any prolonged period of non-usage during the day.
>
>Everything here is 24/7, even all the monitors. I could save a few
>bucks on the electrical bill if I turned the monitors off when I'm not
>here, but I never remember. A 24/7 monitor uses about $15/month in
>electricity (at 130 watts per monitor and 16 cents per kilowatt hour).
>
>I've seen arguments for ... years on what you should turn off
>and what you should leave on....
>You're going to spend the money one way or another --
>either on the electrical bill or on repair & replacement. >- Peter
>=====================================================

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