SeaTalkNG power with ACU-400 - Best Practices

[Keith Pleas]

Chuck (Moderator) pointed to a power FAQ he wrote here: http://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=410

...where he listed (among other things) ST70 instruments and the ST-STNG converter. But when using the converter then any ST60 instruments (and other classic SeaTalk(1) devices) are also getting power from the bus. Can they also be "switched" with the power to that bus? Will they behave the same viz power buttons as ST70 instruments? Or do they need to be powered up and down separately?

My particular installation (see signature) has an ACU-400 which powers the STNG bus so the ACU and bus (with P70R, et cetera) are on one breaker. What are the best practices for turning off the AP power? I have an ACU-400 so my STNG bus is powered by the AP. And I have the breaker switch in my pilothouse so I can turn the AP off if it mis-operates while underway (I don't think Raymarine documents an interrupt / kill / emergency switch as some other manufacturers do). And I can turn the internal GPS on my a78 back on if necessary (plus I have a redundant nav system power isolated on a N2K network). And I have configured that other nav system (Coastal Explorer on a laptop) to use the EVO to keep it in sync with the AP per our other thread. If I turn off the STNG bus (by opening the AP breaker), it has a secondary nav source it can switch to so I'm not particularly worried there. But, ideally, I'd like to just leave the AP - and STNG bus - powered up all the time (95% at the dock on reliable power). So...is leaving the AP system (and STNG network) on 24x7 a good practice? Or are there some discrete components in the Raymarine gear in my signature - like capacitors - with a finite life, even if that life is in years?