On/Off?-That is the question.

[quant]

Hi All -

Do you leave your scanners on all the time (plugged in of course), or when you are away, do you turn them off?

I listen to an old sportcat SC150 (mainly at night) that's hooked up to my Boston Receptor Clock Radio (sounds great) and it is easier to just turn off the Boston and leave the scanner running.

Let me know what you all do.

Thanks,

 

[WA1CRZ]

Off... I hate supporting the electric companies at 17 cent per kilowatt

 

[Dubbin]

The only one I leave on is a PRO-2067 since it is used for my live feed.

 

[Raven95150]

No reason to leave it on if you arent using it. Most of our wasted energy (and part of the reason for increasing energy costs) comes from leaving devices turned on when they are not being used.

 

[bravo14]

When I am out of town for a day or so I unplug it case a bad storm rolls in. Most of the time it stays on 24/7. I do turn it off sometimes and just use of my hand held to RX Fire.

 

[DonS]

On.

At 7.3 cents per kWh, my PSR-600 costs about $1.60 per month (presuming the max 30W of the power supply).

 

[quant]

To clarify, I know it wastes a bit of electricity, but can you do more damage turning the unit on and off daily or leaving it on for the long haul.

 

[captclint]

To clarify, I know it wastes a bit of electricity, but can you do more damage turning the unit on and off daily or leaving it on for the long haul.

This question has no definitive answer. As a reliability Engineer for an electronics company, it was my job to find trends that would shorten the life, and help to find ways to reduce the risk. One of the best tests we had was called: Power Cycle. We would power units on and off for thousands of cycles, and there is no question that this eventually causes failures, usually from solder joint fatique. However, in the context of the life of well designed products which been designed to minimize this effect, you rarely will cause unit to fail in the short time you will use it. By short, I mean 5-10 years. (on/off twice/day for 10 years=7300 cycles) Most well designed and tested products will last longer than that.
So my answer would be: 6 of one and half dozen of another for scanners, since they don't generate a lot of heat except in the battery area. Vacumn tubes used to fail if they were left on for a long time, but semiconductors do not.

 

[Bentley]

I always turn mine off when not in use. Although, I have an old(er) RS pro-2048 at work and its on 24/7 for the past several years.

 

[DonS]

I should probably qualify my above "On." response... I do turn my PSR-600 "off" when it's not in use. However, it's "in use" nearly all of the time... streaming, recording locally, etc.

 

[GoMark]

All 5 of mine stay on 24 7 365.

 

[LordJ]

ON, just like my computer....

 

[n9zek]

I turn off the Ham Radio base when I not at it. The scanners stay on 24/7/365.

 

[Kfred]

sc150

I have an sc150y that runs continuosly, I do unplug it when I will be gone for a couple of days because at times it has gotten warm. I had to replace the ac adapter recepticle where it got hot, don't know if this was from charging or poor or dirty contacts on the plug. This will also ruin a nicad battery which might also run warm from constantly being charged. I leave it on at night so I can leave my mobile home when the weather gets really bad. The local PD gets very active during bad weather and I am usually awakened by the chatter. I also listen to the emergency channels, if there has been a tornado or major accident I sometimes get called to clean up debri and repair the roadway and it never hurts to be aware of what has happened before going out. kfred

 

[kb2vxa]

Why "use" anything when you're not using it? Such foolishness makes no sense at all.

 

[MaxMan1986]

For those of you who are saying that you leave devices on because they cost so little to operate, you are forgetting that the cost does add up over time. Even if it only costs you one measly extra dollar per month, that's twelve dollars per year. And let's suppose you have three things that you don't turn off; that's $36 per year. Not a huge amount of money, but still, that's $36 that you could have spent on something else. Also, you forget that we are very rapidly depleting our natural resources, including the ones we use to generate electricity. One device may not make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but we have to start somewhere.

 

[slicerwizard]

At 7.3 cents per kWh, my PSR-600 costs about $1.60 per month (presuming the max 30W of the power supply).

I doubt it uses anywhere near that. If it did, you'd feel the heat.

 

[slicerwizard]

For those of you who are saying that you leave devices on because they cost so little to operate, you are forgetting that the cost does add up over time. Even if it only costs you one measly extra dollar per month, that's twelve dollars per year. And let's suppose you have three things that you don't turn off; that's $36 per year. Not a huge amount of money, but still, that's $36 that you could have spent on something else. Also, you forget that we are very rapidly depleting our natural resources, including the ones we use to generate electricity. One device may not make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but we have to start somewhere.

If you really want to save money or the environment, drive a fuel efficient car, carpool, give up smoking, tweak your thermostat, stop buying coffee at the drive through, etc. Worrying about scanner current consumption is a waste of time by comparison. You'd save more money by skipping one night out with your drinking buddies.

 

[kb2vxa]

Just think, saving all that money adds up to a lot of beer. Now if you want to save the environment support your local watering hole. Save water, recycle!

 

[Austin4Wyo]

Just think, saving all that money adds up to a lot of beer. Now if you want to save the environment support your local watering hole. Save water, recycle!

Or drink beer