PC Usage

lilclaire

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone knew the answer to this:

Does having your pc on a lot make that much of a difference to your electricity bill? My mum received her latest quarterley bill today and is complaining that it is more than last time (accounting for the rise in prices). I have been using my pc a lot lately but I would of though not much more than usual - what effect on the cost does having it on for a few hours a day (more at weekends) have on the bill?? A friend of mine said they dont make much dent in the cost at all, but I am now wondering and am getting worried about having it on! :eek:

Thanks

chuckles1066

lilclaire wrote:

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone knew the answer to this:

Does having your pc on a lot make that much of a difference to your electricity bill? My mum received her latest quarterley bill today and is complaining that it is more than last time (accounting for the rise in prices). I have been using my pc a lot lately but I would of though not much more than usual - what effect on the cost does having it on for a few hours a day (more at weekends) have on the bill?? A friend of mine said they dont make much dent in the cost at all, but I am now wondering and am getting worried about having it on! :eek:

Thanks

Most pc's have a 300W power supply.

So 3hrs usage is more or less 1KW (look at your bill for the pence per kilowatt).

Add your monitor into that (around half again) and you should get your daily cost.

The cost does mount up over a quarter!

lilclaire

Ohh thanks for that, didn't realise until you spelt it out! People have their pcs on all day though?! I know I do some weekends, I just think i'll leave it on and can come back to it as and when - is it true about it costing more to turn things off and back on again?

Thanks again

chuckles1066

lilclaire wrote:

Ohh thanks for that, didn't realise until you spelt it out! People have their pcs on all day though?! I know I do some weekends, I just think i'll leave it on and can come back to it as and when - is it true about it costing more to turn things off and back on again?

Thanks again

no, it's not true.

One of my pc's upstairs is on 24/7 because it monitors my CCTV system.

It costs me 56kwH a week (around £5). I don't hook it into my monitor unless I n eedto check footage.

But over a quarter that amounts to an extra £65.

£260 a year - in my case, it's worth it because it serves a purpose.

A_Nice_Englishman

The energy used isn't wasted, at least in the winter. It ends up as heat and warms your house.

ABN

A 300w power supply as fitted into a PC does not mean that the PC uses 300w it just means that it is capable of supplying safely upto 300w.

The actual power used depends on what devices you have fitted i.e. type of graphic card, number and type of HD's.

The power consumed also varies with what thte PC is being usd for so overall its not a simple question to answer. You will need to get one of those power monitors to find the true usage.

Cardew

chuckles1066 wrote:

no, it's not true.

One of my pc's upstairs is on 24/7 because it monitors my CCTV system.

It costs me 56kwH a week (around £5). I don't hook it into my monitor unless I n eedto check footage.

But over a quarter that amounts to an extra £65.

£260 a year - in my case, it's worth it because it serves a purpose.

I don't know what type of PC you have, but that sort of consumption( 333 watts) is certainly not representative of any PC I have ever heard of and far more than a normal home PC.

Are you sure that you haven't just looked at the rated power supply and multiplied that by 168(7x24)?

As ABN states a 300 watt power supply on a PC isn't any indication of the average power it consumes. 100 -150 watts is the average on modern PCs - which incidentally use more than older PCs.

In answer to the OP's question, a normal desktop PC will cost a max of 1 pence an hour and with proper power management much less than that.

Poppycat

My pc is running at 147W according to this program See link below

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=317988

Poppycat

It does communicate but it seems to save the data in your profile if you join the site. You can always block it with a firewall if you wish

From what I seen its harmless data as you implied, power usage etc.

sjw7_2

the app only communicates with the site if you give it your login credentials. Dont do that and it wont connect up.

We are just starting a project at work at the moment to reduce power consumption and with more than 2000 pcs its an area that is an obvious place to start. I bought a Plug in Power and Energy Monitor from Maplin to take some readings (they are half price at the moment and only cost £13.50 so a bargain if you want to see how much you are using)

My work pc (3ghz p4) uses about 135watts when running and my monitor is about 25watts. If the PC stays on 24/7 but the monitor goes off outside of normal working hours which are 8-6 i have calculated that it costs about £90 per year to run. Simply turning off the pc overnight and at the weekend cuts this to about £30 per year. These are preliminary calculations but i think are about right.

Interestingly a quick check of the power used by a laptop plugged into the mains shows a draw of only 35watts and as laptops are nearly always switched off at night and when they are not used (its much easier to forget about a desktop and just leave it on) it only uses a fraction of the power over a year that a desktop pc consumes. Even though laptops are more expensive than desktops it can work out cheaper in some cases to buy a laptop because of the power saving over 3-4 years.

Cardew

sjw7 wrote:

the app only communicates with the site if you give it your login credentials. Dont do that and it wont connect up.

We are just starting a project at work at the moment to reduce power consumption and with more than 2000 pcs its an area that is an obvious place to start. I bought a Plug in Power and Energy Monitor from Maplin to take some readings (they are half price at the moment and only cost £13.50 so a bargain if you want to see how much you are using)

My work pc (3ghz p4) uses about 135watts when running and my monitor is about 25watts. If the PC stays on 24/7 but the monitor goes off outside of normal working hours which are 8-6 i have calculated that it costs about £90 per year to run. Simply turning off the pc overnight and at the weekend cuts this to about £30 per year. These are preliminary calculations but i think are about right.

Interestingly a quick check of the power used by a laptop plugged into the mains shows a draw of only 35watts and as laptops are nearly always switched off at night and when they are not used (its much easier to forget about a desktop and just leave it on) it only uses a fraction of the power over a year that a desktop pc consumes. Even though laptops are more expensive than desktops it can work out cheaper in some cases to buy a laptop because of the power saving over 3-4 years.

My consumption for both desktop and laptop are in the same order as yours.

However if you leave a PC on all night surely most people would set it to hibernate(control panel - power saving)? This drastically cuts consumption. Not that most people would have a need to leave it on all night.