Power usage

[shadowscotland]

I'll just like to mention the fact my electric usage has droped but my home PC is producing 2 times it's previous output (not just due to SMP) So I thought I post some real life numbers for comment.

With the media focus directly on climate change at present (and lets face it our electric bills) I'm spending £40 pounds a month less than six months ago (that's nearly £500 a year )

Ok so in last 6 months I now do that 'turn everything off a night' trick. Made much easier by having two four way extension blocks in the living rooms for TV, hifi, etc. But the main differance is folding.

Pre folding our bill (Me and my wife) was around £25 a month (gas heating)
Early folding days (Me, Wife, baby and [email protected] on 24/7 - 2x standard) was around £75
Currently (Me, Wife, todder and [email protected] on 16/7 - 1x linux SMP) is around £35

These are my actual month DD bills in the same house with no price changes.
they take effect this month

Ok the PC is now only on when I'm awake so that 240 hours of non folding per month less than before and the standard clients were getting poor WU's 6-8 months ago. But I'm still spending £40 less a month and getting more points

805D 24/7 +house=£75 per month
805D 24/7 = £50
~£1.67 per day for 500points (2x250)x(24/24) 2 clients@24h per day
.33ppp (pence per point)

E6400 16/7 +house=£35 per month
E6400 16/7 =£10 per month
~33p per day for 1300points (1x1950)x(16/24) 1 smp@16h per day
.03ppp 10 times less


Their were four main changes to my PC.
s775 Motherboard (955 to 975) both high spec but only ~40w draw - the 975 also giving me an upgrade path
Overclocked CPU (805D to E6400) and the Oc'ed 805 would eat power
PSU (600w EZcool - 400 Enermax Liberty) efficency from 69%-82%
Case (basic alu box - Silverstone TJ05) case now 15 degrees cooler (and its spring now )

What I'm saying, is I learn a lesson and spent my money on the board/PSU first so that I could upgrade the CPU at a later date if needed but keep power consumption low, not the otherway round.

For those that pay the own bills, you probable already know this - for those that add to other bill - give them a hand with the bill or try and cut down your usage in other ways to offset your Pc's electric cost in the short time. If your thinking of an upgrade consider the PSU first.

 

[SiriusB]

My parents burn more juice than I do so I am in fact the one that is helping keeping the bill down!

My mum always has the lights on, telly is usually on all day even if she isn't really watching it and has a tendency to turn the heating on even when everyone else is warm!

To be fair our bill is higher than normal due to my mum working from home [Childminder] meaning a lot of energy being used keeping the kids entertained

Still, I do my part by switching off lights, always switch off my sound system and monitor when I know I wont need my PC for a while. The radiator is never on in my bedroom either so some energy saved there

 

[Stelly]

Have not seen the Electric bill yet, looking forward to seeing what the FAH linux machine has put on it...

Stelly

 

[WoZZeR]

I haven't had an electric bill yet.

However, during the summer I live in a caravan (trailer trash) so the lights are all on solar power, the only electric I use is the PC, Hi Fi and an electric heater if it's cold.

Fingers crossed the first electric bill will be reasonable.

 

[Biffa]

I had a fairly sturdy power bill, (£100/month) which was getting ridiculous really.

So I rationalised my silly network setup at home. Really it was just me getting off my bum and doing the graft which, plus a few tools becoming available in the last year or so..

Before:

• Domain Controller/Web Server - Compaq 5000 Workstation (Dual PPro 200Mhz, 196MB EDO) - A real beast of a power hog. No CPU fans and no crunching.
• Mail/Exchange Server - Athlon XP 3200+ - All SCSI - 512MB DDR
• SQL Server - Athlon XP 1700+ O/C - 512MB DDR
• Storage/Linux - Athlon XP 1800+ O/C - 256MB DDR

I also had a Opteron 165 box that I had slowly been putting together to do the following with:

VMWare Server = Opteron 165 (Dual Core) - 2GB RAM - "just enough storage"

With three VMWare sessions running. I used VMware converter on the three old boxes to create the images that I then loaded up on the new server.

Its now faster, cooler and definitely more energy efficient than it was before and more robust. Only think I think I will change is to switch the OS of the VMWare server to Ubuntu and then reload the images. That should be fun. Oh yes once its all settled down its time for some crunchage

I've got one other box to convert, its a AMD FX box that I think I'll move to a Core2Duo or Quadro configuration once I can convert the old boxes to cash.

 

[Cob]

I've a pre-pay meter, and during the 4 weeks that my rig was down last month I was spending ~£10 every 2 weeks. Since my rig has been back in service I've been spending £10 every week.

 

[Jleo]

telly is usually on all day even if she isn't really watching it

I would say this happens in loads of homes all over the world, I reckon its for company more than anything, I would suggest getting a radio in on the act tune into a local radio station there's genarally a bit of gossip and some form of muscial interntainment and it will save a small fortune in the month

Save energy and exercise at the same time get a wind up radio

 

[SiriusB]

It isn't on because she is lonely - there are usually about 15 kids in the house and her friend is usually here too [also a childminder].

Basically what happens the telly gets muted for whatever reason and then my mum and friend end up yapping and the telly gets forgotten about. I always tell them about it but they're too busy yapping to listen

 

[Jleo]

LOL ^^ I know a few females that fit that description perfectly

 

[Steevo38]

£130 per month here.
And the house is empty all day too! (don't tell the burglers!)

Have now retired my 3rd crunching machine (P4c) and it will be interesting to see the effect when the bill arrives.