How much gas does your monster guzzle?

DirkVoodoo

In this age of melting ice caps, actors driving prius and rock stars flying to antarctica in Learjets to warn us about global warming, I thought "hey, wouldn't it be fun to start a thread about how much our PC's are impacting the national grid?".

Then I thought "No, that's a rubbish idea!", but here I go anyway.

So, my "hog" is running a 580W Tagan PSU, with an X1900XT under the hood. Hardly cutting edge anymore, but I recently discovered it pulls a whopping 311 Watts under load!

Anyway, my assumptions here are fairly unscientific and as such, should be taken with a pinch of salt. All I'm assuming is a fully loaded power supply, I hope other, more methodical people will perform more accurate calculations.

So, 580W PSU: current kWh charge for residential urban customers is 14.35c, so as the esb says thats the charge for 1000W of power in an hour or 100W over 10 hours, etc.

This means the PSU, pulling all 580W, is costing 8.323 cent per hour. Yes, ok, how often will my PSU be under full load, if I got some nice readings of power output and averaged them over a 24 hour period, it would be better, but this aint a scientific paper, just one man's rant!

So, I assumed a fairly consistent "full load" period: 5 hrs a day, 5 days a week for 48 weeks (this, errrr...ehhh, friend of mine has no life)

Grand total: *cha-ching* €99.88 a year. Not too bad, and its full load of course.

TORTURE TEST (the wallet-buster!!): €729.09

This isn;t taking into account having my screen on all year round (35W) (take that power save mode!) or my speakers on full blast.

So, anyone else got any earth warming numbers?

Cuddlesworth

Yeah, a pc plugged in pulls down 2 watts. A pc on standby pulls down 2.5/3watts. Quite a few people could save money using power settings on their pc's.

Fanny Cradock

krazy_8s wrote:

Yeah, a pc plugged in pulls down 2 watts. A pc on standby pulls down 2.5/3watts. Quite a few people could save money using power settings on their pc's.

When you say "plugged in" what does that actually constitute? Does not switching the socket off at the mains still draw a considerable amount of power?

Cuddlesworth

By plugged in I mean, pc off and plug in socket. All electric appliances pull down power when they are off and plugged in. There is a reason why old people pull every socket when they go to bed.

PeakOutput

does this apply to laptops aswell????

iv an alienware beast with a destop processor in it so the battery only lasts 2 hours so its plugged in constantly

WizZard

A 580W PSU doesn't draw 580W, it can possibly output 580W at peak. It could, depending on it's efficiency draw a huge amount more than that to deliver the power.

e.g. if your 580W PSU is rated for 80% efficiency at 85% output then it will be drawing from the mains: 493W output = 617W input/draw

BTW, 80% efficiency would be good, and don't take all manufacturers at their word. You're best bet is to actually monitor your usage using a monitored UPS or KillAWatt type device.

DirkVoodoo

Yup, as mentioned I would like to get a days worth of power output readings.

I've always wondered what my PC was consuming, in this age of 1000W PSUs. As I said, the method was an entire simplification, not accounting for efficiency or any other electrical losses (eddy currents, winding resistance, etc.)

I was hoping some other people would post more in depth analysis of their own usage.

The point on energy saving is interesting krazy_8s. I heard that a CRT television on standby can consume up to half the energy of its on state.

Just came across this BBC Science report, pretty cool.

Now back to topic, whatever it was.

awhir

what program can i get to see how much power my psu is pullen.

WizZard

awhir wrote:

what program can i get to see how much power my psu is pullen.

I really hope that was sarcasm...

If not
You need a hardware based monitor, software alone won't be able to monitor this (unless your PSU has an interface that it can monitor, doubtful). Something like this device.

Fanny Cradock

krazy_8s wrote:

By plugged in I mean, pc off and plug in socket. All electric appliances pull down power when they are off and plugged in. There is a reason why old people pull every socket when they go to bed.

What if the socket switch is off but the plug remains in?

Stephen

If the socket switch is off, no electricity will flow.

Cuddlesworth

Stephen wrote:

If the socket switch is off, no electricity will flow.

Pretty much, its the same as plugging it in. The problem lies with the fact that even when a pc or tv or whatever is turned off it still draws a current as there is no physical disconnect of the circuit.

It does apply for laptops.

Rig in my sig uses 340 watts on full load.

awhir

WizZard wrote:

I really hope that was sarcasm...

If not
You need a hardware based monitor, software alone won't be able to monitor this (unless your PSU has an interface that it can monitor, doubtful). Something like this device.

ya sarcasm;)