How Much Electricity

[Joakim Agren]

Hello!

Actually todays modern computers with their fast processors draw alot of power.

My 4 year old iMac uses about 150Watt including the built in monitor. My new HP computer with monitor uses about 300 watts of power.

I can actually heat up my room to room temperature with just my computer,monitor,tv and VCR and 3 light bulbs during vintertime down to about -10 degree celcius outside. Only if it goes below that I have to use my electric heater. This I could not do when using my old Mac so it shows that todays fast computers uses up alot of power. I have tryed to run both my PC and my Mac at the same time for 24 hours whit closed door and the temperature raised to 25 degree Celcius when it was -5 outside. To hot!. Athlon processors uses more power then Pentiums do!. I have AthlonXP 2600+ running at 2133MHz!.

The thing is that I actually saves power usage during vintertime when running my computer for 17 hours a day. This is because I do not have to use the heater that uses 1000 watts. But during summertime I do not know how hot my room will become since I have not had it during summertime. When it is like 25 degree Celcius outside then I think that I will have to shut down my computer or else it will become like a steam sauna inside!.

Regarding the fans! I think he ought to have atleast 3 fans inside he just does not know it!hehe

One is built in the Power Unit and blows air out of the computer at the back. One is for the CPU taht cools the Processor down and one somewher else to take in air in the chassi!.

My iMac does not however have a fan at all not even for the CPU. Instead it uses convection cooling in which the heat inside causes air to raise up and cool air to get sucked in from the bottom and causing an internal airflow that cools the components down at the bottom and very hot air to be vented out at the top handles airholes. I ould hardly touch my imac at the top it was so hot but taht is teh way it is supposed to be when using convection cooling. This type of cooling requires a special design and a CPu that is not faster then 800MHz. So it does not work on current CPU's they are to hot and needs direct cooling!.

[Samurai]

Ok what is your OS? Also your clock speed is needed as well.

For example:

Windows XP AMD Athlon 3000+



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[Cheese]

Originally posted by Samurai@9 January 2004 - 20:50
Ok what is your OS? Also your clock speed is needed as well.

For example:

Windows XP AMD Athlon 3000+



To upload pictures, you'll need to press 'Print Scrn' button (Next to Scroll Lock) and then open up Paint. Click Edit > Paste

You'll then need to resize it, for consideration of the forum users, using the options in Paint.

Then you'll need to upload it to your webspace/image holding account and link to it.

My screenshot is a few posts above...

OS: Windows XP

clock speed: erm I've got AMD Athlon 1800

[Robert00000]

Originally posted by Withcheese@9 January 2004 - 20:02
I have my computer on 24/7 and live in the UK and was just wondering how much electricity am I using or, more to the point, how much is this adding to the electricity bill?

My PC has one fan that I keep on medium setting (not sure about RPM's but can find out), the monitor, speakers and printer are only on when I'm actually using the computer.

Any ideas? I don't want exact figures but maybe an idea of what I should be expecting to pay extra...

Just add up the wattages and multiply electricity costs (per Kilowatts per hour) and you should get a rough idea of how much its costing you

[clocker]

Originally posted by Samurai@9 January 2004 - 14:20
Most PC enthusiasts on this forum know that they need to have an equal amount of fans doing the opposite job, i.e. 1:1, 2:2, 3:3 where 3 suck 3 blow.

This is needed to ensure a constant air cooling method and to ensure your PC's internal areas, i.e. motherboard, graphics card, memory etc... doesn't get dirty by foriegn objects. Dust WILL get inside your system.

I would disagree with this on both general and specific principles.
"Most PC enthusiasts" don't know anything of the sort.
Many people are proponents of "negative" case pressure- most fans blowing out, or "positive" case pressure- most fans blowing in.
Case "pressure" being a relative term here...the pressure in question is minimal.
My case worked best with a majority of the fans bringing air in. You're results may vary.
Dust is an issue in all computers and my experience trying all three layouts hasn't shown one to be superior to another in the area of dust prevention.

[lynx]

Back on topic, the monitor is usually the biggest consumer of power. But assuming that you have it set to switch off after a few minutes idle in reality it won't consume that much power.

If a 17 inch montior used 24/7 would cost about £81/year, the rest of your system would probably cost under £60/year. Obviously you won't be using your montior 24/7, so the actual annual cost of that would be relative to your use.

Overall, a monthly cost of £5 to £6 is probably a reasonable figure.

[Cheese]

Originally posted by lynx@10 January 2004 - 02:51
Back on topic, the monitor is usually the biggest consumer of power. But assuming that you have it set to switch off after a few minutes idle in reality it won't consume that much power.

If a 17 inch montior used 24/7 would cost about £81/year, the rest of your system would probably cost under £60/year. Obviously you won't be using your montior 24/7, so the actual annual cost of that would be relative to your use.

Overall, a monthly cost of £5 to £6 is probably a reasonable figure.

That sounds pretty cool , my monitor gets switched off when I'm not using the PC anyhow. What are you basing those numbers on?

[lynx]

The £81 per year came from what Mad Cat posted, it seemed a reasonable figure.

My overall electricity bills are about £21/month including standing charge (about £3.50) and I'm quite sure my pc doesn't account for more than a third of my electricity usage, so £6/month seems about right.

That works out at 20 pence per day, or 0.833 pence per hour, on average. Again, that fits in with Mad Cat's post quoting 1.6 pence per hour, since the monitor won't be on when you are not there.

[Cheese]

Excellent cheers for that Lynx, now I can tell my landlady that it's not my fault the electricity bill has gone up by 20 quid in recent months