My PC is never on when I'm not using it.

My server, however...

You host a server from your own computer at home?

Heat cycling is a huge stressor on any material. That's part of why diesel freight trucks tend to last well past a million miles while it's newsworthy if a passenger car makes it that long. How many times a week is your Toyota Corolla driving 10+ hours at a time? Most commonly, when you hear of a million mile vehicle, it was making long haul deliveries daily and was maintained at the correct intervals.

Way back before computers had sleep mode we were encouraged to shut it down when not in use to save electricity. I don't think Windows 3.11 had it. The first time I think I remember encountering it was Windows 2000, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I only found this out the other night because my fridge went dead silent for a long time. I thought it was borked, so I was peering deep into the freezer when I saw The Gates of Hell through the grate.

(Okay, so full disclosure, I had smoked some pot, but it totally looked like when Dana opened the fridge to Zuul before she was The Gatekeeper.) 😱😱😱

Anyways, turns out it was in defrost mode (which happens twice a day), and that involves some elements going orange or something. I know that's vague-- I looked it up, but as I mentioned, I was high, so I only kinda remember, lol.

Edit:

The refrigerator activates a heating element located near the evaporator coil. This element warms the coils, causing any ice buildup to melt.

That is assuming they are in good working order with no broken seals anywhere. They will run continuously if they never manage to get near the target temp. Though in that case, your food is probably also not getting refrigerated and you hopefully notice.

Actually modern fridges are usually less efficient. But that's because they use refrigerants that are literally thousands of times less harmful to the environment.

Old appliances frequently used R-12 which is an damn nice refrigerant except it depleted ozone and has a GWP (global warming potential) of 10,900. That means 1lb of R12 released into the air causes the same amount of global warming as releasing 10,900 lbs of CO2.

Newer appliances use refrigerants like R134a which still works pretty well, doesn't deplete ozone, and only has a GWP of 1,430.

The newest appliances are more frequently using R-600a which is hard on compressors because it has a high head pressure and it doesn't cool quite as well. But it also doesn't deplete ozone and it has a GWP of just 3. The bigest downside of that one is that it's very flamable (it's isobutane) so the legal limit on how much residential appliances can us is very low.

Old appliances broke, but they were made to be easy to fix so our grandparents could just swap out the broken parts. I helped my dad replace the compressor on an older fridge as a kid and the heating elements on my grandma's toaster. I remember my dad taking me to some locally owned mom and pop hardware store where we could buy replacement parts for old appliances off the shelf. My parents still have the toaster, but that store closed down and new stuff isn't made to be fixable anymore (most likely due to planned obsolescence thanks to late-stage-capitalism).

On a tangent, when you think about it, throwing an entire toaster away because one heating coil burned out or throwing awag an entire fridge just because the compressor gave out is not rational. But if you tell people we should have the freedom to buy repairable appliances then they look at you like you are crazy. To me, it is the other way around. Sustainability isn't political or a luxury, it is an inevitabe, unstoppable force of equilibrium.

Survivorship bias

Old stuff that broke got thrown out and forgotten

Say what you will about Serbian nationalist fridges but unlike Yugoslavia, they were built to last!

Resurrect it

I mean the lights dim for the entire neighbourhood when you switch it on, but it works!