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    Default What does it cost to run a pc per day?

    I could google, but I am sure there is more than enough knowledgeable austechians here to answer

    recently been thinking that too many pc's are on, and I guess its reflected in the bill...

    edit: not sure if it should be posted here or electronics..

    anyone care to do a quick guesstimate on pc(s)/plasma/heaters/lights
    If you feed ducks at a pond, chances are your bound to feed a goose or two without even knowing it.

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    Watts x Hours Used
    ------------------------ X Cost per kilowatt-hour = Total Cost
    1000


    What part of the country are you in or what $$ do you pay for each Kilowatt ??

    cheers
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    so say its 21c per hour

    400w(power supply)x24 = $2.16per day?
    If you feed ducks at a pond, chances are your bound to feed a goose or two without even knowing it.

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    Talking Heaven forbid! We'll set the world on fire.

    Quote Originally Posted by z1gg33 View Post
    so say its 21c per hour

    400w(power supply)x24 = $2.16per day?
    G'Day Cobbers,
    Sorry to bring you down to earth.
    That is not the way to calculate average power used.
    The PSU are rated for peak power consumption with an extra large margin for reliability.
    The only way to do this is with a power meter, have seen many on e-bay, over an extended period.
    You certainly would not average 400 Watts from a desktop PSU over a 24 Hour period. More like less than 100 Watts.
    Never heard of standby, or do you sleep with you head on the keyboard.

    This will give you a better insight than mere conjecture.



    This intelligent power meter simply plugs into a normal power point (GPO) and turns it into a real-time power monitoring outlet.
    You can enter the local price of your electricity and the meter will tell you exactly how much the appliance is costing to run.


    In addition, the power meter tracks the power used and can display the instantaneous voltage or current being drawn as well as the peak levels that have been drawn.


    One of many on Flea Bay around $30. Been meaning to get one for ages.
    Will do that NOW.

    I want to lay many of these misconceptions to rest.
    Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".


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    These are all big approximates LOL

    A computer uses aprox 80-300 watts.

    A LCD uses aprox 20-85 watts or aprox 80-90 watts for a big CRT.

    Modem and routers can use up to 10-13 watts

    Lappys can use anything from 12-55 watts
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    Well yeah z1gg33 that's what I always guessed what the cost would be about $3-5 a day

    cheers
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    f me.... thats $14 a week (per pc).... geez never looked at it like that....doh!
    If you feed ducks at a pond, chances are your bound to feed a goose or two without even knowing it.

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    I found this its a bit out dated but gives you a ruff idea

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    Ahh all my computers (5) are busy 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year and they are all doing something, logging etc and even one I use as a pillow LOL

    But yeah like beer said not everyone consumes the same amount of juice but you get a rough idea of the $$ it costs per hour
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    So ziggs next question (notice im putting the blame on him ) is how do we bypass our meters?

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    Hi Zigg33 ,

    Great topic and a question a lot more people should consider.

    There is another thread where this question was discussed talking about how much energy etc is wasted running PC's for rubbish like folding and Seti@home ( logging uses about the same amount of power )
    Everyone is talking saving power and saving the planet but this is just one example of why we have the problem we do.




    Quote Originally Posted by Joey
    Below is a very modest system running folding 24/7 , many of the people folding use much more powerful setups and of course way more power.


    CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)
    :Graphics: XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M
    MB: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
    Ram: 2 GB DDR2-800
    HDD: 200 GB
    PSU: 450W Power Supply
    DVD / CDR Generic

    Power cost calculated on cheapest rate of 13 cents per KWH

    SMP Client Power consumption while Running 185W = 133.20 KWH Per Month @ 0.13cents Per KWH = $17.30

    GPU Client 228W = 164.16 KWH Per Month @ 0.13 Cents Per KWH $21.24

    SMP + GPU Client 202W = 145.44 KWH Per Month @ 0.13Cents Per KWH = $18.90

    This is only monthly cost on a single PC ,now consider there are over 250,000 CPU's folding as of the end of 2008 and that this project has been running since 2000.
    The costs are staggering , so staggering in fact that if stanford had run the same amount of work units as the public does per day they would have blown the annual budget in a couple of days on power alone let alone capital cost of equipment needed to do it.
    Quote Originally Posted by cwispy
    Anyway, just for some actual hard facts and numbers, I did some testing today and these are the results.

    For this first test I used a 350W atx psu, intel mainboard with P4 3.06GHz D and a WD 160Gb hdd. This was just powered up, no OS etc.

    Results:
    350W ATX psu in standby (plugged in, but not turned on) = 7W
    350W ATX psu powered on with no load connected = 12W
    350W ATX psu + above mainboard + hdd = 55W

    Then I used a complete system which has intel mainboard, Q6600 2.4 quad core with 2Gb ram and 500Gb hdd and a 450W psu. The monitor was plugged directly into the mains so is not included in these results power results.

    450W ATX psu in standby (also with mainboard in standby) = 17W
    450W ATX psu, complete system idle (vista) = 60W
    450W ATX psu, with folding tray client = 86W
    450W ATX psu, with smp console client = 100W

    So as you can see, the system is never idle when the clients are running and you are always dissipating a lot more power than the system would normally use, even if it was just turned on. Now I didnt bother going through any of the extra performance options and posts on the forums etc, but I am sure I would be able to get the power usage to go even higher that what I have found if I spent some time on it.

    Whatever the case, when the console client is running, the system is using 66% more power than it was when sitting at the desktop idle. That is 345.5kwH per year, or $44.93 if worked out at $0.13 per kwH, extra per system. That's going to add up to a hell of a lot of greenhouse gasses being created by the power generation plants and for what? I have no doubt that there are a lot of other systems out there which are far less efficient than the quad card I used today for the tests too.
    Quote Originally Posted by cwispy
    Working on what the power in WA will be next month, 18.46c that figure becomes $15,944,825 and if people are running it on work systems, that goes way way higher again.

    To write it another way...

    it is an extra 86.375 GWh of power generation, yes that is GigaWatt-Hours...

    Yes that's 86,375,000,000 Watt-Hours. Now tell us that is not having a seriously detrimental effect on the atmosphere? And to top it all off, these figures would have to be on the low side.

    Based on some sources, a coal powered generation station produces 966g of CO2 per KWh of power generated, so with these figures, we have an additional 83,438,250Kg of CO2 emission's alone. There is also many other noxious gasses which are given off, so why would anyone do it when the disadvantages seem to far outweigh the lack of any benefits?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Godzilla View Post
    So ziggs next question (notice im putting the blame on him ) is how do we bypass our meters?

    Yeah !! send me that info too

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    My PC's, Router, Access Points, Cordless Phones, DVD Player, STB's etc etc are very good in winter as a room heater also good for parties if you switch the lights off all the flashing led's light the room like disco party lights I don't want to know how much power it all uses because I would then start turning things off and I would get cold.

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    All your electrical appliance certainly adds up in costs to run but the big question is how do they cost you when sitting in standby mode...
    I think all of you are going to be in for a surprise how much it costs you for the luxury of having remotes.
    I worked my power consumption for PC,s / dvd's /tv's / game consoles in my household costs me about $255 per year in stand by mode alone.
    Not bad for the power companies just to have these suckers sitting idly.

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    Talking There's more to being frugal than meets the eye.

    Quote Originally Posted by officemanager View Post
    All your electrical appliance certainly adds up in costs to run but the big question is how do they cost you when sitting in standby mode...
    I think all of you are going to be in for a surprise how much it costs you for the luxury of having remotes.
    I worked my power consumption for PC,s / dvd's /tv's / game consoles in my household costs me about $255 per year in stand by mode alone.
    Not bad for the power companies just to have these suckers sitting idly.
    G'Day Cobber,
    You've not taken into account the hidden costs, should you turn all off when not in use. Apart from inconvenience, there are costs associated with program loading on start up and here's a lulu:-
    Every time you turn your ink jet printer on, It does a cleaning cycle, using inordinate quantities of ink. Apart from the replacement cartridges, there is the problem that the waste ink pad needs replacing, or in some cases, a new printer. A DIY job can be very messy, especially if she whom must be obeyed, suffers incessant headaches.

    Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".


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    Quote Originally Posted by beer4life View Post
    G'Day Cobber,
    You've not taken into account the hidden costs, should you turn all off when not in use. Apart from inconvenience, there are costs associated with program loading on start up and here's a lulu:-
    Every time you turn your ink jet printer on, It does a cleaning cycle, using inordinate quantities of ink. Apart from the replacement cartridges, there is the problem that the waste ink pad needs replacing, or in some cases, a new printer. A DIY job can be very messy, especially if she whom must be obeyed, suffers incessant headaches.

    Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".

    Done all that, I'm a sparky. Cleaning cycle happens regardless if printer is on or off.
    I was merely commenting on stand by use as a lot of people think their appliances do not use energy when not switched on by remote.

    Good to see you are aware of costs associated.

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    the wasted power as heat is great in winter if only we could make it cool in summer !!

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    I have a sparky family member (which I have not seen in 12 months) whom has been called out to "drug houses" where they have bypassed it... so can be done buggered if I know how?

    edit: better edit that and make clear, he was there to connect the house to the mains after it was bypassed, he was not doing the by pass thing ...
    Last edited by z1gg33; 04-09-10 at 10:04 PM.
    If you feed ducks at a pond, chances are your bound to feed a goose or two without even knowing it.

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    Easy to by pass but one big problem when you do it.... the power companies have records on you and when the power consumption changes rapidly they and the law enforcement wants to know why.... same reasoning as how the Tax man catches the cheats.

    Cheers.

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    All comparisons are at 12V.

    My Pentium4 3.6 gig with 2 hard drives, DVD and Nvidia Geforce 210 through a 900 watt inverter suck 15 amps from a 12V battery with windoze idle and up to 24 amps with a demanding game like FSX.

    By comparison my Kroft digital STB suck 0.5 amps while on and 0.4 in standby mode. A 14 or so inch CTR TV draws 6 amps, my 22" LCD wide screen computer monitor about 2 amps. IC-R7000 communications receiver about 1 amp. IC-R2500 mobile communications receiver 0.6 amp, IC-706MKIIG mobile all mode TXCVR about 1.5 - 2 amps receive and up to 20 amps TX at full power. 75 watt 70cm linear 25 amps, 180 watt 2m linear 30+ amps. A 25 watt 240V incan light bulb through a 150 watt inverter about 2 amps. 12V 20 watt CFL bulb less than 2 amps. Video camera at front door 0.1 amp day, 0.2 amp night with 32 IR LEDs. 3.5" LCD monitor around 0.13 amp. 12V mobile peltier cooler/warmer 3 - 5 amps depending on model. Asus eee pc 2 to 4 amps depending if battery is charging or not. Electric blanket 2/4/6 amps on low/med/high.

    At 24 amps the desktop computer sounds like a lot, but it's actually less than a single heating element of a toaster oven. That pegged my 30 amp panel meter so I don't know what it sucks but it's a lot.

    Air conditioner 1 million amps probably.

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