Cost of running a PC

getmore4less

debitcardmayhem said:

Smart home stuff , Alexa,Nest,WiFi enabled bulbs, remote control switch what ever, ….. really smart switch equals 

Our first simple  "smart" thing was a couple of light bulbs

We abandoned them for the wall switch.
(We didn't have the all listening option then)

The idea we could have them on/low etc just did not work it's on or off don't need low light if not in the space for mood effect.

The motion sensor lights do the job far better.

getmore4less

B0bbyEwing said:

getmore4less said:

Got my two tapo monitors connected to home assistant collecting data constantly

Moving them around, plugging different items in and making notes what stuff is doing at what time.

Can do the use analysis any time as the data is recorded.

Smart switch with monitor has a life after the monitor days are over.

What stuff uses when in use is not that relevant for things you need to use unless there are alternatives


It's finding the excess energy use in standby and off when it could be zero is where the low hanging fruit saving are.

High energy use items is where the big savings might be.


 

Agreed. 

However some of what I was looking at was purely for curiosity reasons, which I'm perfectly entitled to do.

Like the hard drive for example - I don't use it a great deal so I tested to see if it used enough for me to bother turning it off. No point in turning it off without knowing.

The PC is another - weekends I'll spend quite some hours and only recently have I bothered to use the sleep function on it. For long enough I'd just go on it, leave it running, go outside, do whatever, come back, hop on, go off to do something else, leave it running. Now I can see what just putting it in to sleep does.

Likewise the kettle. You hear in the media - only boil what you need to. Well if I boil 2 cup instead of 1, is it going to really make a difference to get excited over? Now I can see. 

Once you see what things use, you can then make the decision as to whether you want to do anything about it as it's a bit pointless otherwise & there's nothing at all wrong with someone just seeing what individual devices cost them.

Same with anything unless you know you can't make sensible changes.

Finance and energy are good examples of people not having a clue where it goes.

On your PC setup most of those devices use power even when turned off unless turned off at the wall.

I have a laptop that I don't use much I checked that today ( while I went out)

Sleep it uses around 1.5w (charger plugged in)

In use 20-40w doing stuff
Screen off 12w idle
Set a reboot to update Windows at 4pm
Went upto 50w peak
Then back to 11w idle

Message(to me) is if not in use shut it  down

One of my monitors uses 0.7w in standby
3kwh a year doing nothing.

B0bbyEwing

getmore4less said:

Message(to me) is if not in use shut it  down

Yeah pretty much. 

Like any new toy I wanted to have a play (& obviously see if it was working).

Now once one helpful soul pointed me in the right direction of using it, I was just having a play.

But as we approach energy prices going up again & the winter months, that's when the tumble dryer & dehumidifier will be in use so I'll be testing those out to see if we can sort anything that way. 

Also these economy washes. See how economical they are really. Again, just having a see with it & harming nobody along the way

mluton

Slightly off topic, but maybe useful to some. I have just started using https://www.wolskill.com/ for Alexa, might be useful to some and also Wake On Lan by Mike Webb from Play store.

All my devices (Server, PC's NAS's & TV's) now WOL from Alexa which is very handy or via App, shutdown is also optional, but I use task manager "task" to shutdown after no activity for x hours and NAS's have scheduling tasks.

I've always run a HomeServer which now I have changed to run only when needed via WOL and Sunday night wakes for a few hours and shuts itself when its done its tasks.

B0bbyEwing

mluton said:

Slightly off topic, but maybe useful to some. I have just started using https://www.wolskill.com/ for Alexa, might be useful to some and also Wake On Lan by Mike Webb from Play store.

All my devices (Server, PC's NAS's & TV's) now WOL from Alexa which is very handy or via App, shutdown is also optional, but I use task manager "task" to shutdown after no activity for x hours and NAS's have scheduling tasks.

I've always run a HomeServer which now I have changed to run only when needed via WOL and Sunday night wakes for a few hours and shuts itself when its done its tasks.

I can't help but feel like I could have things running better / more efficiently / more in line with how I'd like if I used all this Alexa, Google Assistant etc. kind of thing.

I just don't really know it well enough to know what it can and can't offer and also what hardware is required & how you then set it up.

Some work folk were telling me how they turned the lights off by talking to their phone. Baffled me. I remember being in my teens thinking my parents were such dinosaurs/technophobes because they didn't have a clue about technology that surely everyone knows about by now.
......I've turned in to that dinosaur. Haha.


Bought some lighting for the TV & found you could control it by talking to the phone. That was a bit of an eyeopener. 

getmore4less

B0bbyEwing said:

mluton said:

Slightly off topic, but maybe useful to some. I have just started using https://www.wolskill.com/ for Alexa, might be useful to some and also Wake On Lan by Mike Webb from Play store.

All my devices (Server, PC's NAS's & TV's) now WOL from Alexa which is very handy or via App, shutdown is also optional, but I use task manager "task" to shutdown after no activity for x hours and NAS's have scheduling tasks.

I've always run a HomeServer which now I have changed to run only when needed via WOL and Sunday night wakes for a few hours and shuts itself when its done its tasks.

I can't help but feel like I could have things running better / more efficiently / more in line with how I'd like if I used all this Alexa, Google Assistant etc. kind of thing.

I just don't really know it well enough to know what it can and can't offer and also what hardware is required & how you then set it up.

Some work folk were telling me how they turned the lights off by talking to their phone. Baffled me. I remember being in my teens thinking my parents were such dinosaurs/technophobes because they didn't have a clue about technology that surely everyone knows about by now.
......I've turned in to that dinosaur. Haha.


Bought some lighting for the TV & found you could control it by talking to the phone. That was a bit of an eyeopener. 

The answer is pretty much anything you want and loads of things you won't have thought of yet. 

What I have found in life is I have rarely been the first person to want to do something.

What's great these days is someone will have done a youtube video of what I want to do and while looking for one I will uncover loads of things I never though of doing.

At the high level we are dealing with home automation,  there are plenty of introduction vids  to get people started.

I am working through this guys vids(style not for everyone I like it).

https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulHibbert

For something simpler look at some vid that deal with google home (there are other simple platforms).

B0bbyEwing

getmore4less said:

while looking for one I will uncover loads of things I never though of doing.

I'm kind of similar. Whenever I am looking for a vid, I uncover loads of turning rusty bolts in to knives or restoring an old sword or something. 

Then 3 hours later I realise I've not done what I came to do

Thanks for the link.