Computer= high electric bill?

[HouRman]

There are lots of things to take in account with my system. I've got a 4.1 altec lansing sound system sometimes I play.... that means we'd have to figure out how much power the amp consumes dependent on the gain. Also if your reading CDs or playing a DVD the CD roms spool up and consume more power, or if your archiving a CD with a burner that will consume more power from 2 spinning CDroms. I also have monitor warm up time... well u guys may not have that but my monitor warms up for 30 minutes before I can watch DVDs without ghosting.

So to make an accurate test of power consumption for a computer, you'd have to just run a computer in your house and don't use anything else that involves power. Then see what your bill is at the end of the month

Or spend one month without using your computer and see how much money you saved. Which ever one is easier lol

 

[Aquaman]

<< You know, someone needs to measure this once and for all. No more educated guesses or estimations, but a computer hooked up directly to a meter to see how many KWhs it uses when active, and when running idle with the monitor on standby or off.

And then a break down for how many fans you have, type of processor, size and type of monitor etc... >>



You can use one of these :

Brand Power Consumption Meter

or one of these:

Watts Up?

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Dreadogg]

Wow Im just looking in front of me and see all these little lights beeping! I know Im using mass amounts of power my bill is roughly 135.00 dollars a month thats with gas heater (electricfan), gas waterheater, and gas stove. I have two pc's one with 400 w and the other with 250w my KVM switch, router, GTXP rack, and cabalmodem are all those lights oh yea 19inch monitor also that I never shutoff and my girlfriend is always watching two 27 inch TV's at once and reads at the same time, she's wierd like that! also my home stereo is never off ether it just sits there with its lights on barly geting used ! Im seriously thinking off going into powersavins mode Im going to have our electrician come in and put swiches on the outlets so that everything gets turned off with one switch! lol


You know I just thought of something if I took my Pc with all the fans in it I could probally turn it into a generator! I know that it sounds like one already!

 

[arcas]

Here in central KY, electricity costs around $0.045/KW-h. Right now I only have one machine running 24/7. Currently the monitor is off (I'm accessing the box remotely from work) and the APC UPS it's connected to is reporting 17.6% load capacity or 167 watts. So, it would cost me around 18 cents/day to keep this machine running like this. Now, granted, this is with the monitor off and only one machine running but I'm certainly willing to fork over $5.40/month to keep the machine running rather than power cycle it every day.

 

[DAICA]

hmm, im gona have to do some experimenting and see what is eating up our electric bill.
i gotta sneak around and pull some plugs on a couple of things. and i'll just shut off the central heating system so i can let me pc warm up the place, lol.

 

[Windogg]

Using SsZero's calculations, My PCs alone (not including the ones that do NOT run 24/7) would run me about $400 per month. My actual bill for a 1,400ft^2 apartment with high ceilings running heat during a cold winter averages $150 per month. The power used by the actual computer is negligible. The real power hog is the monitor. I remember in the DC forum someone calculated how much power a computer would suck down. The number came to around $5 for a more general computer to about $10 for a highly OCed rig running lots of high drain peripherals. The cost calculation did not include power used by the monitor and other devices such as hubs, switches, routers, cable modems, power USB devices, scanners, gaming devices, or speakers.

Windogg

 

[piasabird]

You might try turning your monitor off or maybe the printer or the speakers.
If you have any devices that use a transformer, like a Printer or a scanner or speakers the transformer could be eating up the power. This is referred to as a ghost load. The power is being burnt up without you doing anything.

 

[BreakApart]

Intel 500mhz example PC energy cost

Lots of GREAT PC energy cost links

In my house the cost difference between running (1) PC 24/7 for a month, -vs- (2) PCs 24/7 for a month, with monitors off at night is approx $10-15 dollars. Tested this last summer with my (2) EXACT CLONE Athlon 1.2G systems running SETI. Anyone saying it cost $35 a month per PC is using fuzzy math, a 300watt PS will NOT pull 300watts from the wall outlet, it will only draw what the PC is actually using at the time.

Example: Athlon 1.4G while playing Quake, speakers turned up the PC itself "may" draw 200-250watts for the few hours you play, using Office/surfing the system may only use 150watts, then while in sleep mode it may only draw 15watts. Power Suppy ratings do NOT mean it will always pull that much power.

Good Luck

 

[Whitedog]

I know... someone turn off EVERY APPLIANCE in their house and run their PC for 24/7 one month and post your electric bill! Settle this already!

 

[Whitedog]

My PC is l33t and rOxZorZ aLL... I had to install a seperate breaker panel to power it! My electric bill went up by $235 a month because my pc is so l33t!

[/sarcasm]

 

[AluminumStudios]

<worthless post> Just buy more hampsters to spin the power wheel. </worthless post>

 

[c8]

I have 4 computers running 7/24/365. 2 computers runs without monitor (Used in Satellite Emulation ). One used for file storage/CD Burning...etc. Final one is my main PC I use at a daily basis. Living in a 1900 SQ FT house, our electric bill is around CDN$50+ per month. My wife saves a lot for the family in lighting and such. We use gas for heating, and pay on average CDN$100 / month on heat during winter....Yes I am living in one of the coldest city in the world (Hate to say that but true). I had discovered that Water heater is a sucker....3000W of power it sucks and it has to always keep warm, if you live in an old house water heater could be the culprit...Bad insulation.

c8

 

[TomBilliodeaux]

On the technical side,
If you really wanted to measure peak power without spending $100 on a Wattmeter (nice device),

formula: Single phase power (KW) = (Volt x Current x Power factor) / 1000

Volt = usually 115 - 130 AC (use ac voltmeter)

Current = Amps , use amprobe to clamp around the hot wire (black one), or the neutral.

Power factor = 1.0 for resistive and single phase with minor inductive type loading (motor windings produce high inductive loads in alternating current). It is the measure of the phase angle between the voltage and current = watts/amps x volts

Now do you really want to go thru this?

Amperage:
Several ways to measure the current.
Safest way is to remove the outer insulation of the power chord that everything is plugged into, exposing the black, white, green wires.
Then measure the amp reading by clamping onto one of the power wires (black or white).

Volt:
Next, measure the voltage at the recepticle where your power chord is plugged in.


The problem with any of these type instantaneous readings is that you do not get billed by instantaneous concumption.

You need to have a wattmeter that stays plugged into the device and has cummulative ability to give average/peak/ values over the time you need (30days).