extend life

if you go to bed, put also your PC to sleep (turn it off...)! :-)

You had to know the follow up question:

If I will not be using it for four hours.....

What about two hours?

If only two hours should I even put it in standby?

Why not? I do it regurarly if I do not intend to use it more than an hour; during the day, mine is in suspend about more than half time .. (18h on, 12h in suspend approx, ready to be used ...)

its a trade off, right? The power down and power up put stress on the monitor.

to

Don't worry about it either way. I turn my computer on first thing in the morning and off at bedtime. At work we have some that have been running

It should be outdated before you would notice any effect either way. Just think of the monitor the same way you do of your TV set and treat it the same.

Who says that I am treating my TV properly? If I might be watching it again in under 4 hours, I just leave it on, thinking that that is better for the TV electronics.