calculate computer watt output a month?

[matas]

How Can I calculate how much watts does a computer use each month? I mean how Do i Know how much It consumes a day?

 

[SuperNaruto]

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/kill_a_watt_electric_usage_monitor_review easy..

hard = look up all your specs and calculate it..

 

[matas]

can u give me a basic chart for each component such as harddrive +cd rom, etc

 

[nineball9]

Another vote for the Kill-a-Watt. Neat little gizmo.

Trying to figure out power usage using the manufacturer's specs will likely be misleading at best. Often, the specs are for maximum power usage, or in-rush current, others are average specs. Specifications for some devices are only in Volt-Amps, and you'll need to know the power factor of the device to figure out watts.

I've used the Kill-a-Watt (as well as the meter on my on variable isolation transformer) to measure my system as a whole and the individual components. Power usage was less than the rated specs for my components. Standby power consumption was surprising to me, especially for my printer which has a rather large power brick.

good luck!

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

How much power you computer is using is also going to depend upon it's efficiency at it's current load. And the Kill-A-Watt (I have the Seasonic PowerAngel), devices are amazingly useful...

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
How much power you computer is using is also going to depend upon it's efficiency at it's current load. And the Kill-A-Watt (I have the Seasonic PowerAngel), devices are amazingly useful...

Maddening too - I found out that my Logitech Z-640's use 6 watts when they're "off". They don't have a remote, why should they need to be using energy all the time? So much stuff is now "soft off" now. But it can be done efficiently. Examples, both sides:
Cheap DVD player from Walmart: nearly 10 watts when it's "off" versus ~15W when running.
Air conditioner from Sears, which has a remote: The Kill-A-Watt doesn't even register any power usage, it's so low. Even when switching it to measure amps, which can record as low as 10mA, it still doesn't read anything.

It seems that it is possible to make soft-off devices that don't use much power at all. I guess it's just not cheap enough to satisfy our lust for cheap junk.

 

[Howard]

You won't be finding watts but watt-hours.

Record the power draw of the PSU (and monitor) for one month. Integrate with respect to time.

 

[matas]

how o I record the power draw of the psu?

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: matas
how o I record the power draw of the psu?

The power draw of your PSU is simply the power going through AC power cord. The Kill-a-Watt and similar devices have a 3-prong plug and a 3-prong jack. That is, you plug the Kill-a-Watt in to your wall's AC outlet and then plug whatever you want to measure in to the Kill-a-Watt. In your case, you would simply plug your computer in to the Kill-a-Watt to see how many watts it's using. (It can measure much more than just watts.)

You may be thinking about the power usage of the individual components in your computer, e.g., how much the CD drive uses, how much the graphics card uses etc. You can estimate the power use of individual components by using some calculators on the web. But if you want real time measurements, simply use the Kill-a-Watt (or similar device). To measure your CD drive, plug the Kill-a-Watt in to the wall, plug your computer in to the Kill-a-Watt, and see how much power it's using. Then spin up the CD drive in read or write mode and see how much power your computer is now using. (Obviously, this won't work directly for a graphics card, hard drives etc as they are always on, but you can see the increased power usage when your system is running a heavy load.)

If you want a full system measurement, plug all your peripherals (PC, monitor, speakers, printer, etc) in to the surge protector or power strip and plug the power strip in to the Kill-a-Watt!