Pc + Power = Mad Dad :S

Bezinator

Bezinator

Bezinator

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Brighton
Right - im still living with my parents and there electicity bill came in and i must say pretty high.

I leave my pc on most of the time unless it crashes. Someone told me it uses more power booting up and turning off than just on.

Can anyone clear this up for me as i download and do loads of things on the pc while im at work/over night and he wants me to turn the pc off or he will take it lol!! :mad:

Thanks,
Chris
 
The peak power use it at boot but leaving it on will definitely use the most power over time.

Look for ways to cut down on power useage such as turning off your monitor and peripherals.

You could also just offer to chip in on the leccy bill.
 
The PC in your spec is nice, but not insane, You have quite a modest graphics card in the sytem etc.

It probably uses somewhere in the order of 120w when doing nothing much, 180W when booting, and could be anything up to 240w or so when gaming or running processor heavy tasks (like folding etc).

Obviously those are just very crude estimates. Anyway lets take worst case scenario, and say it averages 240W, and you leave the computer on 24 hours a day.

240x24 = 5760, or 5.76 units of power a day. Thats 172.8 units a month. I dont know how much you pay for power, it seems to range from 9p/unit to 14p/unit depending on which electric company you use, and if you have day/night rates.

Anyway, lets again take the worse case, 14p/unit, with no lowcost night rate.

172.8 x £0.14 = £24.19 per month. Power bills are normally quarterly, so that would be £72 per quarter for running your PC.

During the 2 minutes it takes to boot up your PC (at slightly higher than average power use), it still will bearly use enough power to move the electric meter. After all, its probably booted and idle within 2 minutes from turning it on. 180W power load for 2 minutes.... 1 unit of electric is 1000W load for an hour!

Do you use a flatscreen or a CRT, an average 17inch CRT probably uses 120W of power while its on, compared to an LCD where 35w would be more realistic, I didnt include a power allowance for the screen, likewise the speaker system, a full 'hifi' separates amp+speakers could soak up another 100+ watts of power, a high powered computer speaker system probably wont be much better.

At night you sit in your room with the lights on, make sure you have energy saving bulbs, can reduce from a 100W light to a 14W light to help, if listen to a TV while using the computer your burning even more watts.

A computer really isnt 'that' bad when it comes to power use, but if you only use the computer 12h a day, then turn it off, you'll halve its contribution to the powerbill.

power.jpg

This is a power meter monitoring my PC right now as I edit this message, its showing its current power usage in watts.
PC Spec
P4 [email protected]
4x512mb DDR PC3500
2xSamsung 160gig SATA disks in Raid0
Geforce 6800GT@Ultra clocks
SoundBlaster Audigy
2 Optical Drives, 4 case fans (3 LED, 1 Regular)
450W PSU
Zipdrive, Floppy drive, and Fan Controller with LED's and LCD screen.

When I play games like World of Warcraft, or Everquest it goes from 130W to about 220W.
 
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I solved this probem buy building a cheapo download computer that has a 300w power supply max. When I want to download overnight I boot up the lesser machine to do the downloading or other tasks. Turn off my main machine, which is around 680w, at night times.

It also saves wear and tear on my better system.

Not sure if this really reduces power usage that much, but my dad has stopped complaining.
 
Just because your PC has a 680W PSU, doesnt mean it uses that much power. Look at mine, 450W PSU, 130W Idle, 220W under load.
 
Corasik said:
The PC in your spec is nice, but not insane, You have quite a modest graphics card in the sytem etc.

Do you use a flatscreen or a CRT, an average 17inch CRT probably uses 120W of power while its on, compared to an LCD where 35w would be more realistic, I didnt include a power allowance for the screen, likewise the speaker system, a full 'hifi' separates amp+speakers could soak up another 100+ watts of power, a high powered computer speaker system probably wont be much better.
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I have a TFT (17").

What about leaving monitor on standby?
 
An 'Average' TFT screen turned on will use around 35W, on standby, it probably drops to around 5W.

It wont help in summer, but in winter, just tell your dad, that you turn the heating down because your PC does a good job at warming the room :D . Saves some money on the heating bills hehe.
 
Scott Salisbury said:
I solved this probem buy building a cheapo download computer that has a 300w power supply max. When I want to download overnight I boot up the lesser machine to do the downloading or other tasks. Turn off my main machine, which is around 680w, at night times.

It also saves wear and tear on my better system.

Not sure if this really reduces power usage that much, but my dad has stopped complaining.
Click to expand...


Your spec wont use any more than 240w at load, a 680w PSU is slightly overkill :D

@ OP - I bet your computer (if you were to get the monitor thing and check) barely draws 180w under load, maybe 200w. So if it was under load 100% of the time using 200w @ a national average cost of around 10p per kw/h it costs 2p per hour to run or 48p per day. Even with the screen and some half decent speakers (if going all the time) would only use about 72p per day.

I would buy a power meter and check how much it is using, show your parents and then they might stop complaining :p
 
I have the same issue - I just limit myself abit more.

Avoid turning PC on in the day times unless it's being used e.t.c. - that saved me quite abit on the bills. Thinks there's extra charge or cheaper in the nights.

Also, always turn off the Monitor or at least to standby when left unattended for over 5mins.

Some Asus mobo have "Sleep" function that allows! you to continue downloading but drops the power to a bare minimum - not sure if it actually works on the Bill side of things but a couple of my mates reported it so...

Also, switch you room's lightbulb to an energy saving 20Watt flourence - approx 60watt of a traditional light bulb - tada, more savings!
 
BillytheImpaler said:
You could also just offer to chip in on the leccy bill.
Click to expand...

That's what I would suggest. It's his house and his rules, etc, etc. Either turn it off as he asks, or offer to pay some of the electricity bill. You say you work so I assume this wouldn't be a problem?
 
i have the same problem with my mum...but shes a bit weird as when i say 'ok ill help pay for the electricity' she replies with 'no i dont want you to do that, just turn it off' :confused:

i think she just wants to show shes still in charge :(
 
Curio said:
That's what I would suggest. It's his house and his rules, etc, etc. Either turn it off as he asks, or offer to pay some of the electricity bill. You say you work so I assume this wouldn't be a problem?
Click to expand...

I already pay some - he says he wants more because he thinks its me using all the power
 
The little plug in monitor I took the picture of only cost £12, not only can you show your dad exactly how much power your system uses, it also has another mode. It shows how many KW/H the system has used since you plugged it into the monitor.

Ok, if your unlucky, and there is a powercut, it doesnt have a battery backup, so it forgets the usage, but if you were to record it daily, or weekly for a month, you would have a pretty exact idea of how many units your using.

If your house has economy 7 setup, with a day/night rate, then obviously the meter wont know the difference, it will only tell you the total units used, so if that was the case you would have to estimate the day/night usage yourself.

To be honest, I suspect your dad's just using your computer to pass the buck on power usage. Afterall prices have gone up recently. There was a similar thread somewhere recently, either here or on Tomshardware forums, where someguy was saying his dad was convinced their total house powerbill had become 100% larger since he bought a new graphics card!

I think my HiFi uses more power than the computer. I rarely bother to turn off my poweramps, after all, I like to listen to music on the 'spur of the moment' and I dont want to have to wait 30 minutes for all the amps to be fully warmed up. According to my power meter, the hifi's using around 150w when its doing nothing.

Even so, with 2 computers in frequent use (I live with my girlfriend), a power thirsty hifi setup, cooking, and light. I dont think my powerbills are every that scary.

The hifi is just my little 'thing' its sound is affected when its cold, so I leave it on. However I have energy saving light bulbs, I turn off the computers when not used, I turn lights off when I leave rooms, and in places I cant have energy bulbs, I've fitted dimmer switches, dimmed lights use less power.
 
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Carosik is providing an awful lot of good advice there, well worth reading his post again and letting it sink in! I should know, I've got qualifications in Energy Efficiency and my day job is in the electricity industry.

For my part, use low energy lightbulbs (2 for 1 at Morrisons right now if you have one nearby), use natural light as much as possible, keep your door shut and never let anything sit on standby (this applies to TVs and videos as well - they still use up to 25% of the stated power when on standby) and if you're not using things like chargers, camera docks or USB items, disconnect them. Keep your speaks off until you need them.

If your father is really concerned, check the meter one day before school/work/whatever when you know no-one will be in the house. Check again when you get back. Mark down both readings - this'll give you a base usage for things like your boiler, fridge, freezer etc. Then wait until you're in the house alone and using your PC - do the same - preferably at around the same time of day. Compare the two - it's not exact, but you'll get an idea of how much you're using. If the results are good, show your dad - if they're not, chuck an extra tenner on the rent on pray he doesn't do the same!

Because PC power usage can vary so much (like Carosik has shown) it's impossible to get exact figures, but you might be surprised at what you find.

And a visit here is always a good idea - for everybody:
http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/
 
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