Does a Desktop computer really cost $20-$30 *in electricity* per month?

[tortillasoup]

I've found this to be very true. A couple years ago my mother decided to get a new fridge to save energy and, before getting rid of the old one, I plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt and measured it's energy use over a day. I did the same thing with the new one after giving it a few days to settle. In the end the new (slightly smaller) fridge actually uses a little MORE energy than the old one. Ultimately neither one used a whole lot of power. Even if the new one used no power at all I calculated that it would take decades to pay for itself.

People don't seem to believe me when I tell them older fridges/freezers don't necessarily suck as much power as they've been led to believe. The sad thing is, the old ones will probably outlive a new one given the quality of today's appliances. That new fridge is already falling apart. We also have a really old freezer in the basement and I've tested it as well and it really doesn't use much power either. I don't remember exactly but I calculated it to be something like $60 a year.

If you bought a new refrigerator and it uses more energy than an old one, then you probably didn't buy an energy star model or you bought a LARGER refrigerator.

 

[88keys]

^^Bumper sticker politics.

And yeah coal, because I don't mind drinking contaminated municipal water and paying to use it.

 

[tortillasoup]

^^Bumper sticker politics.

And yeah coal, because I don't mind drinking contaminated municipal water and paying to use it.

wrong thread buddy

 

[Doppel]

I've found this to be very true. A couple years ago my mother decided to get a new fridge to save energy and, before getting rid of the old one, I plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt and measured it's energy use over a day. I did the same thing with the new one after giving it a few days to settle. In the end the new (slightly smaller) fridge actually uses a little MORE energy than the old one. Ultimately neither one used a whole lot of power. Even if the new one used no power at all I calculated that it would take decades to pay for itself.

People don't seem to believe me when I tell them older fridges/freezers don't necessarily suck as much power as they've been led to believe. The sad thing is, the old ones will probably outlive a new one given the quality of today's appliances. That new fridge is already falling apart. We also have a really old freezer in the basement and I've tested it as well and it really doesn't use much power either. I don't remember exactly but I calculated it to be something like $60 a year.

Some people get obsessed replacing things with something more efficient, but as I said earlier if you're in a climate that requires heating anyway inefficient appliances don't cost you as much as you might think. Conservation of energy guarantees that the waste energy turns into heat. This is antithetical to the other post above about warm components in hot climates. For these climates not only is the waste heat lost money but then you have to pay more money to remove that heat via air conditioning.

 

[tortillasoup]

Some people get obsessed replacing things with something more efficient, but as I said earlier if you're in a climate that requires heating anyway inefficient appliances don't cost you as much as you might think. Conservation of energy guarantees that the waste energy turns into heat. This is antithetical to the other post above about warm components in hot climates. For these climates not only is the waste heat lost money but then you have to pay more money to remove that heat via air conditioning.

That's only kind of true. Electricity can be a very expensive way to heat a house so if you're heating your house with something that is cheap like natural gas and you spend a lot of money in electricity on inefficient appliances, then you're not saving any money at all. Also for the times of year when you don't want to heat your house, you're not saving money but spending money as well. It's best to buy efficient appliances however the current crop of $2000 refrigerators is making question buying an appliance at all! I wouldn't spend more than about $1000 on a refrigerator, washing machine/dryer combo or anything like that but I'm sure some wives of people would!

 

[Miramonti]

The final monthly tally really depends on local kwh prices and whether or not it's a business expense.