is my housemate pushing the leccy bill up?

moonrakerz

Interesting quote I found:

"Sadly, it's impossible to say how much power a PC uses without measuring it, because of variables such as the type of motherboard, the speed of the chip and the power of the graphics card. (A fast graphics card can use more power than the processor.) PC power supplies can range from about 150W to about 650W, and will actually draw more than that during peak loads. However, PCs use much less power when idling and the US Energy Star programme - which PC manufacturers have been following since 1992 - is aiming to get the power consumption on idle below 50-60W.
The simplest approach is to use the PC's power-saving software to turn the screen and hard drive off and then suspend the whole system after a specified time. The most expensive option is to use a screen saver that "donates" processor cycles to a worthy cause, but will run your PC at a high level most of the time. PC Pro magazine found that it cost £79 a year to run an Athlon Shuttle PC with normal use (eight hours a day then switched off), but running SETI@home made that £400."

Bagpuss1973

Hi spinningsheep

I do also use a tumbledryer quite alot, although in winter when heating is on we do put stuff on an airer whilst we are out in the daytime but I still use th tumble loads too. So £500 still seems extreme to me as our heating was on from the end of October and on all the time as it's storage heating.

Maybe he could get a job before next winter!!

Goodluck

Bagpussx

Contains_Mild_Peril

Spinningsheep, at this time of year, can't you just wait for a dry day to wash bedding? Apart from the moneysaving, it smells so much nicer after outdoor drying.
My winter gas/ electric bill was somewhat alarming too (though not quite as bad as yours). I live in a 2-bedroom flat with my husband and son, and my husband just doesn't seem to grasp the concept of saving on gas or electricity. He moans at me if I switch the telly off completely rather than leave it on standby; if he puts the kettle on he always fills it; and if he feels a bit cold, even if others in the room are too warm, he will turn the fire up and sit around in his T-shirt rather than put a jumper on like normal people.
It's hard to say whether caol works out cheaper than gas: last time we had a coal fire we would use about 100kg (about £11 worth at the time, probably about £12 by now) per week over winter, but that gave us pretty much all the hot water we needed, as well as a warm living room. We had no central heating with it though, so bedrooms had to be heated separately.
One very quick and easy powersaving tip which I was surprised to learn is if the coils at the back of your fridge/ freezer are dusty, vacuum them. Apparently it makes a significant difference to the energy effiency of the fridge. I've been able to turn my fridge down half a notch and still maintain the same temperature since I did that!

kit

This thread is great as I have been trying to figure out why my electric bills are so high. We are paying £47 a month and have now been told we need to increase that to £65!
We have a 3 bed terraced house with gas heating..... I'm thinking my partners computer being on 24/7 (downloading) may be the main cause of the high bills.

spinningsheep

We've just increased our payments to £90 to try and make up the shortfall, we were paying £60. When I called NPower,they said we were using about £60 a month electric on average according to the meter readings, and the rest gas,but like I say, this coming winter, that heating wont go on until we get ice on the INSIDE of the windows!!Im sure we dont have a faulty gas meter, as its quite new, but could it be very inaccurate? Do you reakon id be better off going pay as you go for a bit and see if it helps?

Woby_Tide

most PC's power supplies aren't over 350w, and thats at a full load. So if it was on full load, all day every day you'd use a kwh every 3 hours or 8 per day, at 7p say a kwh, 56p per day max

Cardew

Woby_Tide wrote: »

most PC's power supplies aren't over 350w, and thats at a full load. So if it was on full load, all day every day you'd use a kwh every 3 hours or 8 per day, at 7p say a kwh, 56p per day max

There have been several threads on this forum and others about PC power consumption.

I have never heard of a home PC using more than 150 watts. Bear in mind that includes modern powerful PC's that need more fans for cooling.

The 350 watt power supply is to cater for masses of ancillary equipment(without their own supply) that could be connected and working via USB e.g. external hard drive, charging mobile phone/mp3, camera, coffee warming hotplate(my most useless xmas present) second monitor, speakers etc etc.

I would think that your estimate is generous to say the least.

olly300

Someone on another thread worked out their tumbledryer used 70p per hour.:eek:

Cardew

olly300 wrote: »

Someone on another thread worked out their tumbledryer used 70p per hour.:eek:

Which is completely wrong. If it was the same post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=486455&highlight=dryer+70p

it was corrected in a subsequent post.

A more realistic usage is 20p an hour - 30p at the outside.

This demonstrates that unsupportable inaccurate statements, repeated in good faith, on the internet, and forums like this can so quickly spread mis-information.