[SOLVED] Total Power Consumption

gn842a

Honorable
Oct 10, 2016
666
47
11,140
I realize that there are variations in power consumption and configurations. For example for sound one could have in-monitor speakers or a full tuner-amp with stereo speakers and subwoofers. And CPUs are quite different as are graphics cards. But generally speaking....a desktop, monitor, mouse, etc.....I think I once calculated it at about 60 watts, maybe more if running a CPU that likes high temps and a couple of graphics cards. I'm wondering if this is "in the ballpark."

The computer is on 15 hours or so a day periodically I try to figure out how much of my household power it consumes, seems like it is not huge compared to things like the refrigerator, dishwasher, house lights, etc. (I'm off tungsten though)

thanks,
Greg N
 
Solution
In the context of a regular residence, a PC is way down on the list of consuming.

A Kill-A-Watt device will show the total consumption.
I have one.

I leave my PC 'on' 24/7. The monitors sleep after a while.
The system (specs below) idles at around 80 watts at idle.
The time I'm not using it...say 14 hours a day...costs about $55/year in electricity.

My little Beelink HTPC idles at 11-12 watts. In use, about 27 watts.
Idling 19 hours and using it 5 hours (movies, etc)...about $24/year.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
In the context of a regular residence, a PC is way down on the list of consuming.

A Kill-A-Watt device will show the total consumption.
I have one.

I leave my PC 'on' 24/7. The monitors sleep after a while.
The system (specs below) idles at around 80 watts at idle.
The time I'm not using it...say 14 hours a day...costs about $55/year in electricity.

My little Beelink HTPC idles at 11-12 watts. In use, about 27 watts.
Idling 19 hours and using it 5 hours (movies, etc)...about $24/year.
 
Solution

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I like to use the term PDU. Pizza Delivery Units.
Assume a delivered pizza is ~$25 (tax, extra sauce, bread sticks, delivery charge).

Religiously turning the system OFF when I'm not using it is the equivalent of 2 extra delivered pizzas per year.

My HTPC on 24/7 is 1 PDU.

Those 2 or 3 pizzas per year gets me:
  • Instant on. I simply move the mouse to wake up the monitors. 2 secs. Helpful when I wake up to a code epiphany.
  • System updates in the middle of the night when I'm not using it
  • Full system backups in the middle of the night

The dishwasher run every other day consumes as much or more than your PC running 24/7/365.
 

gn842a

Honorable
Oct 10, 2016
666
47
11,140
Well I tend to put the PC into sleep mode. There are some keyboards out there (Kensington, HP) that have sleep mode buttons which I find convenient when popping out of the house or going to bed. Every now and again the system bothers me for a reboot related to updates. My upstairs computer I turn OFF. Once a week I turn it on for two hours. Seems to be all that is required to keep it updated.

My new monitor has visible ventilation slots at the top, which implies heat needs to escape, and heat=power usage. But it surely isn't much (so nearly as I can see, less than what would come off a ten or fifteen watt tungsten bulb). I noticed that my old monitor also has ventilation slots as I was investigating, and I didn't notice that till today, after ten years of ownership.

But the thoughts of waste heat got me to thinking about the power consumption. In reality my PC is coupled with my sound system, and I have music going all the time. But I don't count that power consumption as PC related, because I had music going most of the time dating back to before PCs existed.

thanks for the info,
Greg N