What's your experience with a standing desk?
I do a lot of Dev work as well as design. When I'm coding, standing isnt too much of an issue. Having the option of moving around helps me when I'm stuck debugging issues. When designing though, especially with a wacom tablet, I notice that I tend to slouch or lean too much on the desk, so I sit.
Having a motor makes it very convenient for lazy people like me, especially if it has presets. Setting up the height to make it ergonomically correct is key.
I have a friend that has a DIY setup who uses monitors which adds to the weight and makes adjusting the height on demand very inconvenient–leading to the fact that he doesnt use it to stand anymore. If you go the DIY route, make sure its setup correctly. I've seen some creative setups before including putting a height adjustable chair on their desk. I was too short for that to work for me.
In regards to long-term work, that all depends on you. Like most people on HN, my days run 8~12 hours too. When I first got my desk, I split my day up until I got used to it. One of the things that helped was the use of a GelPro mat (check the clearance section) which cushions your feet.
There are days I've stood all day and felt fine. When I'm sitting I tend to get myself into "Stuck to the chair" mode and even if all it takes is to stand up to walk around to get your blood flowing, I dont or I dont even realize I've been glued to the chair for hours on end.
Hope that helps.
You're not exercising like a treadmill desk, but you will often find yourself moving about as you work. Heck, some days the music kicks in and you've just got to move with the beat while you're building a new feature for your app.
Side effect: after about three months, I was also able to give up soda completely and have almost completely given up caffeine.
I don't have willpower issues, I just would do it without thinking.
(apologies for the cell phone quality)
We took apart a normal desk and combined it with an old plasma TV lift (designed for trade shows back when TVs weighed a lot), a linear actuator, switch, and some random nuts and bolts. It worked out pretty well. It's a little noisy, but you only end up moving it once or twice a day, so that's fine.
http://www.ergodepot.com/Ergo_Depot_adjustable_desk_AD127HD_...
There are a few exercise balls and aerons around that people occasionally use. I have a footstool that I rest one leg on as I lean forward on the desk. The other footstool is for pairing with a developer who is much shorter:
For a while I had only a fixed standing desk and I took breaks by just taking the laptop on my lap. Motorised desk is much better and promotes changing your stature more frequently.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/579181_296764684...
So I bought a bar chair, in order to be able to sit on my standing desk. I try to use it as few as possible, and it works quite well for me :)
I like it but only need use it a few hours per day. I don't think I'd stand all day long with any desk.
Maybe some milk carton boxes will do the trick.
You need to stand correctly. If you lock out your knees and other things, it won't necessarily be better than sitting.
In sum: sitting all day is bad for you.