Power On or Off

[taybrynn]

I leave everything on all the time, except the FM transmitter ... which is on a $3 digital timer, and turns on at approx 5am and off at 11pm nightly.

[caretaker]

I wait till it get's dark and plug my cords into my neighbors outlets     Really I have a 100 amp sub panel I shut off at the end of the night and turn on about an hour before my show. I suppose I could leave it all on 24/7 but if it rains then I don't have to reset tripped GFI's.

[Greg]

Everything (show computer, dongles, controllers, FM transmitter) on 24/7 for the month unless doing maintenance.  Show computer runs Zara Radio during non-show hours playing continuous commercial free (except time and temperature on the quarter hours) Christmas music which has become quite popular with our neighbors over the years.

I figure since a powered up controller in standby only draws a couple of watts of power there is no meaningful benefit to warrant the hardware to auto-power them up/down.

Greg

[taybrynn]

Just an opinion, but It's really not practical (esp. on larger shows) to power down unless your out there ready to babysit the show every night ... so having it all plugged in and ON tends to lead to a more reliable show that can run even when your gone ... and turning stuff off just tends to create situations where things don't work and doesn't really save much power or anything.  I have 18 circuits and I'm not about to go turning those on/off each night.  To be honest most of my problem with reliability are either when my computer reboots or when the FM transmitter isn't on ... and its the only thing I ever turn off.  For the most part the computer is on 24x7 unless the power goes out, which (knock on wood) doesn't seem to happen much in the winter, but mainly in the summer during storms.