Going green... Really

[victimssun]

Just wondering what everyone's ideas are on shutting down the printers when not in use (nights, weekends). I know that when we got out Rolands, that have a main power switch and then a separate on/off button and they say to turn them off every night. What about the Mimakis? Do you guys let them run all the time? I had heard something about how the head won't dry up if you leave them running....

Just getting the push to cut costs, and figured this could be a simple solution.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[TheSnowman]

I don't know about the other printers, but my mimaki takes hardy any juice at all when the heater isn't on printing. I shut it off every night (on the front) so that the pumps still run every hour. That doesn't take any juice though.

 

[thewood]

Sure, we leave the Mimaki's main power on at all times. Periodically, it will power on and cycle some ink through the heads to prevent clogging in the lines and print heads. The pennies you may save in electric costs will be outweighed the first time you have to replace a head that has gone bad due to inactivity.

 

[gabagoo]

The mimaki has a main on switch which needs to stay on for sleep mode. I don't think turning that off is going to significantly change anything green.

 

[victimssun]

Why would the head clog if it was off (main switch off)?

 

[wildside]

as already stated, mimaki's come on once an hour and do a short cycle to keep the ink moving, solvent ink is a killer if it sits and dries in the head, therefore head clogs

if you are looking to save money by killing power to the machine overnight, well my friend you are in much more serious trouble than you may know......

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We power off all of the computers, laminator, plotter and our JV3 (front green switch only) evey night. We started doing it about 6 months ago and immediately saw about an average 15% decrease in power consumption on our bill without changing anything else. Not sure if the mimaki really saves anything or not, but getting into the habbit of shutting everything down, just like turning off the lights when you leave a room or using a low-flow shower head, will save you some money. Trim some here and some there and you'd be amazed at just how much extra money you put into your pocket each month. We started saving enough each month to buy a boat on just energy savings from turning that equipment off.

Listen to Clark Howard people.

 

[thewood]

You should turn off the green switch every night. Otherwise, the machine won't do it's sleep cleaning. I think the OP was asking about turning off the main power which is a no-no.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

You should turn off the green switch every night. Otherwise, the machine won't do it's sleep cleaning. I think the OP was asking about turning off the main power which is a no-no.

Something's wrong with either your printer or mine, because green switch on or off, ours does a sleep clean as it should.

 

[thewood]

No, nothing wrong with my printer. Although, it may be set up differently than yours. But when my machine is on (green switch), it doesn't do sleep cleanings. It will clean itself periodically when printing, though.

 

[Jester1167]

We have an APC with readout on our Roland SC 540 Pro II and on not printing it was running 33 watts. I turned the power off on front panel, not main, and it was running between 0 and 1 watt. Quite a savings. The Roland does do a semi sleep mode when not in use after a certian amount of time.

We turn everything off every night as well. We also raise the rollers on the laminator. We were told by the tech that if you leave pressure on the roller long enough you could get flat spots. Thought that was good advice.