Cost of running a PC

B0bbyEwing

getmore4less said:

That says it needs a 18 watt power supply, the actual draw will be a lot lower,  in use and standby 

Then by the same token, the same applies for my 8TB, in which case you are saying WD are incorrect in what they said to me.

I'm not saying you're wrong with that, I'm not saying they're wrong. I don't know, clearly, which is why I'm here.

Anyway I bit the bullet last night & bought one of these device tracker things to see what various items are actually using. 

I did see that £10 one but noted in the review section someone saying you can't reset the usage counter. So I track the PC, go ok then, now I want to track the kettle. Bit stupid if I can't reset it to see what the kettle uses for a 1 cup boil vs a 2 cup boil for example.

Sure you could just deduct the PC usage from it but the device is supposed to be the smart thing here, not me. 

victor2

B0bbyEwing said:

getmore4less said:

That says it needs a 18 watt power supply, the actual draw will be a lot lower,  in use and standby 

Then by the same token, the same applies for my 8TB, in which case you are saying WD are incorrect in what they said to me.

I'm not saying you're wrong with that, I'm not saying they're wrong. I don't know, clearly, which is why I'm here.

Anyway I bit the bullet last night & bought one of these device tracker things to see what various items are actually using. 

I did see that £10 one but noted in the review section someone saying you can't reset the usage counter. So I track the PC, go ok then, now I want to track the kettle. Bit stupid if I can't reset it to see what the kettle uses for a 1 cup boil vs a 2 cup boil for example.

Sure you could just deduct the PC usage from it but the device is supposed to be the smart thing here, not me. 

WD are not incorrect. The power supply they ship with their products will have sufficient output to run it in all cases.

Your new monitor will give you a much better view of what your device is using under your circumstances. Will be nice if you come back here after monitoring it for a few days and tell us what it reports.

B0bbyEwing

victor2 said:

WD are not incorrect.

Possibly.

I asked for a figure for power consumption so I could calculate what it costs to be plugged in.

If it's something that varies then they could say - well this is a number BUT the device varies depending on what you're doing, therefore we can't give you an accurate answer to your question.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09QS7VKHS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is the one I bought. 

There was one at £17 but the delivery time on it was like next week or the week after so I said for £2 forget it.

Grey_Critic

Still fixating on the costs of a PC - Each of us has a different requirement - I have 2 laptops and a tower system - I *switch on/off* as required so rather than trying to micromanage the costs just do the same.

No doubt if you go around the house (or office in some cases) you will find various items using power you never thought about before - there was an article I read about someone who had one of those big American style fridges - when he did the exercise of checking consumption it was using an average of 1600 watts per hour. 14,000 Kw a Year

It is a bit like the claims on Diesel emmissions and claims people were missold - perhas in some countries but in the UK that is not how they were marketed - when we buy things power consumption of appliances has not really been of concern in the past - perhaps they will be in future.

Simple answer is turn off when not being used.

B0bbyEwing

Grey_Critic said:

Still fixating on the costs of a PC 

Last few posts have actually been about a standalone hard drive connected 24/7 actually, not a PC.

Not sure how you define "fixating".

From my viewpoint, I'm just asking the question and having a discussion.
The "fixating", again, from my viewpoint, is that as I haven't requested this thread be locked immediately after your post & accepted your view that I'm "worried" then I've now migrated from being "worried" to "fixated".

Assuming you have a better half, when they ask what you want for tea, are they "worried" because they just asked a question? Are they "fixated" if they maybe extend the conversation by suggesting an alternative to your reply by saying "what about this..."?

Never understood on forums how some people seem to get so deeply offended when a thread goes beyond their post. Isn't a forum where discussions take place?!

Grey_Critic

you asked a question about power consumption of a PC - People can only answer in general terms without the full spec of the machine. In the great scheme of things the power consumption of the PC cannot be arrived at without the spec and the useagedetails of the owner. I doubt very much if the cost of running it will make much difference to your bills.As I have pointed out several times you can take any item in isolation if you are looking at saving money - People have suggested you borrow or buy a meter to measure it but even that would only be a guide.

onomatopoeia99

My desktop, which is nominally for gaming, uses about 220W continuous while doing stuff like simple web browsing that requires little CPU or GPU effort.

outline spec is i7-8700K , 32GB RAM, 980Ti graphics, water-cooled, SSD boot drive, HDD main storage and three displays (2x24" and 1x27" 4K). 

So about four hours to use a kilowatt

km1500

... about 4 hours to.use a kilowatt-hour 

getmore4less

B0bbyEwing said:

getmore4less said:

That says it needs a 18 watt power supply, the actual draw will be a lot lower,  in use and standby 

Then by the same token, the same applies for my 8TB, in which case you are saying WD are incorrect in what they said to me.

I'm not saying you're wrong with that, I'm not saying they're wrong. I don't know, clearly, which is why I'm here.

...

The power supply will be sufficient to cover max load.

Ignoring the container and it's requirement to be connected to the network.

The HDD will have multiple load conditions.

Standby ready to spin up from stationary
Spin up from stationary
Spun up(idle)
Read
Write
Seeking.
...

getmore4less

B0bbyEwing said:

getmore4less said:

That says it needs a 18 watt power supply, the actual draw will be a lot lower,  in use and standby 

Then by the same token, the same applies for my 8TB, in which case you are saying WD are incorrect in what they said to me.

I'm not saying you're wrong with that, I'm not saying they're wrong. I don't know, clearly, which is why I'm here.

Anyway I bit the bullet last night & bought one of these device tracker things to see what various items are actually using. 

I did see that £10 one but noted in the review section someone saying you can't reset the usage counter. So I track the PC, go ok then, now I want to track the kettle. Bit stupid if I can't reset it to see what the kettle uses for a 1 cup boil vs a 2 cup boil for example.

Sure you could just deduct the PC usage from it but the device is supposed to be the smart thing here, not me. 

I wanted one where I don't have to look at the screen as sometimes it will be in out of the way places or near the floor.
The tapo ones can view through the app anywhere which will be good enough to start.

I have seen home automation reports where they capture the data continuously through home_assistant ,will be trying that at some point
eg this on twitter   

https://twitter.com/robhawkes/status/1562110060733546497

I have a heating/water(OWL) that allows continuous capture of the data from the devices.