Can you help settle a disagreement please?

Snooze

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Here are the figures for my Dell - which I run two screens.
Included in the figures are 15Watts continuous for the UPS and another 5 Watts or so for the router.
All figures approx as the power take varies by the second up/down- measured by a plug in power meter - from maplins I recall.

Fully on and screens lit - 220 watts
Fully on but screens both off 130 watts

Unit on stand by - 45 Watts
Unit off but main supply feed on - 41 Watts
Unit totally off - so just router and UPS - 20 Watts.

So unless I am going to switch the mains to the computer totally off, there is no effective difference between switching the unit to standby and turning it off. So indeed I leave it on standby when I'm not using it most of the time typically overnight for example. Indeed it hardly ever gets switched fully 'Off' - it just gets a re-start every now and then to clear out the memory etc of junk accumulated over the last x days.

There is one valid justifiable reason for not switching it totally off and that is the most likely time for it to fail is when the power is applied as that it when there may be inrush currents and power spikes for the electronics to handle.

Can you explain the highlighted bit please. If the unit is switched off then what exactly is consuming 21W ? What is this "main supply feed" that you speak of? One would assume you are referring to the mains, but if the unit is switched off then it should be consuming 0W.

robmar0se

Snooze wrote: »

Can you explain the highlighted bit please. If the unit is switched off then what exactly is consuming 21W ? What is this "main supply feed" that you speak of? One would assume you are referring to the mains, but if the unit is switched off then it should be consuming 0W.

When you switch off a PC, if you don't switch off at the mains, it still has power - often if you look at the back or on the motherboard you will see a light diode shinning brightly. Secondly, again if power is not switched off at the mains, and laptop adapters are connected, then the batteries will continue on trickle charge.

What the OP is saying is that this is consuming 21w ph (or 184 kw per annum) - these figures ignore the UPS drain.

S0litaire

Snooze wrote: »

Can you explain the highlighted bit please. If the unit is switched off then what exactly is consuming 21W ? What is this "main supply feed" that you speak of? One would assume you are referring to the mains, but if the unit is switched off then it should be consuming 0W.

Even if the PC is powerd down the PSU is still drawing power.
Most computers are still using a tiny ammount or power even when off for things like "Wake on lan" or to power/charge USB devices.

My desktop pulls 15w when powered off (105w when on including screen :P )

If i plug my android phone in to the PC it will start to charge and i've used the "wake on lan" functions a few times in the past.

Only way to fully power down a modern PC is to unplug it from the wall....

Snooze

I'm surprised, didn't know that. And the reason I'm surprised is because as a user of the aforementioned Maplin power usage device thingy, my PC tower uses a grand total of 0W when it's plugged in but switched off at the on/off button on the front. It uses a few W when it's in hibernate (obviously).

My tower is out of the ark though so maybe they didn't have the same tech back then? It's an old Compaq D31v which I believe dates back to the early 90s sometime! It'll be getting replaced in the near future so I'll certainly bear in mind your comments about the power usage on new ones when not switched off at the mains socket.

Myser

Snooze wrote: »

My tower is out of the ark though so maybe they didn't have the same tech back then? It's an old Compaq D31v which I believe dates back to the early 90s sometime!

Yes, computers bought around the 90's and before had the main switch in-line with the mains power. When you switch the computer off, everthing was dead inside it including the PSU!

podcake

one other thing you may find to add to this is that Windows ( i'm assuming that is your OS) starts to get lazy after a large number of hours in use, if you reboot it it should work faster.


Also, RE: UPS

it will only protect for sure against drops etc.. if it is what is termed a ' double online conversion' model, units sold as 'line interactive' have a switching time which can drop the load.

vaio

It's anecdotal and a very small sample but my work machine is normally left on all the time and the only computer failures (aka upgrade opportunities) I've had over the last 12 years have all (3) happened when restarting from fully off after two weeks away over Christmas.

The guys in the next unit turn theirs off every night and seem to have more failures, generally when they turn them back on in the morning

Ron_Doran

And the definitive answer is.....?

Snooze

Ron_Doran wrote: »

And the definitive answer is.....?

There isn't one! :rotfl: A few quid in leccy consumption each year for leaving it hibernated or save your few quid in leccy and risk it going bang one day when you switch it on.

That said, my antique tower has been switched on and off every day for the past 15 or so years and I have not suffered any component failures whatsoever. <looks for wooden things to touch :cool:>

robmar0se

Snooze wrote: »

There isn't one! :rotfl: A few quid in leccy consumption each year for leaving it hibernated or save your few quid in leccy and risk it going bang one day when you switch it on.

That said, my antique tower has been switched on and off every day for the past 15 or so years and I have not suffered any component failures whatsoever. <looks for wooden things to touch :cool:>

Agree - estimate the OP could save upto £50pa by switching off at night, and periods of absence.

I've not had a failure ever, but then I build my own and get a good PSU with lots of overhead.

Having said that a couple of times, peeps have brought PCs here, then go pop when turned on (surge protected), always very embarrassing - on the other side of the coin, they were probably on borrowed time anyway.

Where has the original OP gone?