A recent study by Harris Interactive states that a typical mid-sized business that leaves its computers on overnight wastes more then $165,000 per year in electric costs; more then $1.72 billion wasted in the US alone. The article continues:

Simply by turning off machines during night hours, the report says, the average business could also eliminate 1,381 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, which translates to nearly 15 million tons nationwide.

I recently started shutting my home computer down at night after a friend told me how much he saved on electricity by shutting his down. Unless you are downloading something completely legal, what’s the point of keeping your PC running at night – unless like me you use it as a heater in the cold months.

Read the Register’s article.