Power Consumption of PC when switched off

Crabman

Hey Hey,

I got a master/slave multiplug from Tchibo which cuts the power to 6 slave sockets when the master appliance (PC) is switched off.

However, it said in the catalogue that the threshold would not need adjusting unless the appliance used more than 10W when off.

When I plugged my PC in and then turned on the mains, it turned out to use a lot more than 10W as I had to turn the adjustment screw a full turn to lower it.

So the question I'm asking is where does this power go if the computer is switched off?? :eek: Is there an colony of pixies living inside my base unit? :rotfl:

albertross_2

The pixies are there waiting for you to press the on button, and then they crank it up for you.

PC's Usually use about 20W even when "off". Thats about £16/pa down the pan.

gaming_guy

on my gigabyte mobo it keeps the usb ports supplyed with power even when the computer is off, but still turned on at the mains socket.

Crabman

Darn those pixies. I know, I'll impose some energy wastage penalty charges. That'll teach 'em.

Seriously though, I'm surprised at this. It's like there was no point getting the auto socket at all

John_Gray

Sorry to disagree with the PC power consumption figures, but I did some work for my firm on this topic, and found the following for a HP Pavilion system unit and an HP 17" LCD monitor:

State.........Screen...System.unit

---

Running.......24W......43W (idle), 69W (at 100% CPU )
Standby........2W.......3W
Hibernating....2W.......2-3W
Powered off....2W.......2-3W

Of course, Your PC's Power Consumption May Vary!

John

PS How do you do tables or code-like fixed-pitch columns with blanks?!

DonnyDave

And how much power does the multiplug consume when in use and when appliances are 'off'?

John_Gray

Sorry, you'll have to explain more about 'multiplug' and 'appliances'... [Assume I'm very dense].

John

DonnyDave

John_Gray wrote:

Sorry, you'll have to explain more about 'multiplug' and 'appliances'... [Assume I'm very dense].

The OP mentions a "Multiplug Adaptor". See here.

Into the 'master' socket goes the computer base unit and into the others goes the peripherals (printer, speakers, monitor, scanner etc). When the computer base unit is powered down, the Multiplug Adaptor switches off all the other sockets (the "appliances" I refer to, i.e. peripherals).

Crabman

I can't believe a computer uses similar power in standby and off. When my laptop is in standby it uses around 7% of the battery power for each hour it's in standby. Of course, that's a laptop, not a PC.

It could be that the threshold was incorrectly set though

albertross_2

I've just measured my laptop in standby, it uses 7.3 Watts with a fully charged battery, but sometimes jumps up to 22Watts for a few seconds, but generally settles at 7.3. It uses 29.4-32 Watts when on.

Crabman

albertross wrote:

I've just measured my laptop in standby, it uses 7.3 Watts with a fully charged battery, but sometimes jumps up to 22Watts for a few seconds, but generally settles at 7.3. It uses 29.4-32 Watts when on.

How did you measure that?? Is it a nice toy that I'm going to end up buying? :rotfl: