Electric Bill

[KingFatty]

When I see a dime laying on the ground, I pick it up. I think going for 'free' power savings is a good idea, because no big downsides such as having to buy new equipment.

I also bought a kill-a-watt and have been seeing what effects various changes have on wattage at the plug, but just getting started on collecting that data.

I found out that an old unused VCR was using around 10 watts while turned off and displaying a digital clock (kept it plugged in to use as a clock and nothing else). I unplugged the VCR because it's just not worth the electricity over the years, I'd rather use a regular clock. if I ever need to play a VCR tape, then I'll plug it in only during the playing.

 

[aigomorla]

I asked if this thread is for real because the "savings" is nothing to be concerned with.

welll lets revisit your concept..

i went from a full blown gainestown rig which were ES's and had no power saving features.

These were monster 4c/8t chips x 2 on a Intel5520 chipset.

Power draw on the units was quite big... drew something around 200W just being on...

that system was replaced with 2 gulftowns with inactive core shutdown features.

In short the processors which i replaced them with drew less power, and had 2 extra cores along with 4 threads.

I can tell ya, i probably saved about 5 dollars a month from that upgrade since its a server that never goes down.

But if u calculate the cost of the processors... well... i wouldnt of done that upgrade even with the power savings unless i was going to get 4 more cores and 8 more working threads.

8c/16t -> 12c/24t machine.

 

[greenhawk]

There are definite cases where replacement for the sake of reducing power-consumption can and does work in your favor from an economic standpoint

+1

The computer I had before the Q6600 did make a good reason for upgrading, but that was because it was of the older era where their was no idel power mode for the CPU. It used so much power that when I tested it with a power meter from work, it was cheaper to turn the computer off when not using it, and get a second computer (went with a second hand laptop) to run the 24/7 tasks I wanted done.

 

[greenhawk]

I understand that some people may not care about 5$ a month.

most people do care about money (espically the ones that have to earn it), but most people who sit down and think it through will see spending $200+ to save $5 is a bad joke.

It is a consideration that should be made at the original items' purchase time, not as a reason to spend more money 12 months later.

 

[greenhawk]

You're potentially saving right around 30 watts at idle, which will usually be very close to your average power savings.

The thing that I see people not remembering is that when off, the computer uses even less, so instead of leaving a computer on 24/7, using it only 8 hours a day (or so) when awake and at the desk can give a far larger power savings than any "energy efficient" or "better design" can possibly give.

Of course, this all pales against other power using equipment in the average house as it is cheaper to implement the use of energy efficient light globes than buy a new PC. And the watts savings it many times more as well. 75%ish for some.

Checking out the fridge's seals or even getting a new fridge can have a large difference as well.

30W for a PC "side grade" is nothing in the scheame of things of a average household.

 

[RussianSensation]

30W for a PC "side grade" is nothing in the scheame of things of a average household.

I always bring this up in these type of threads but these type of comments are generally ignored.


Typical Wattages of Various Appliances
Here are some examples of the range of nameplate wattages for various household appliances:

Aquarium = 50–1210 Watts
Clock radio = 10
Coffee maker = 900–1200
Clothes washer = 350–500
Clothes dryer = 1800–5000
Dishwasher = 1200–2400 (using the drying feature greatly increases energy consumption)
Dehumidifier = 785
Electric blanket- Single/Double = 60 / 100
Fans
Ceiling = 65–175
Window = 55–250
Furnace = 750
Whole house = 240–750
Hair dryer = 1200–1875
Heater (portable) = 750–1500
Clothes iron = 1000–1800
Microwave oven = 750–1100
Personal computer
CPU - awake / asleep = 120 / 30 or less
Monitor - awake / asleep = 150 / 30 or less
Laptop = 50
Radio (stereo) = 70–400
Refrigerator (frost-free, 16 cubic feet) = 725
Toaster = 800–1400
Toaster oven = 1225
VCR/DVD = 17–21 / 20–25
Vacuum cleaner = 1000–1440
Water heater (40 gallon) = 4500–5500
Water pump (deep well) = 250–1100
Water bed (with heater, no cover) = 120–380

Source: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10040

Like I said, if you just air dried your clothes on a rack at home, you'd save more $ than swapping CPUs. In this case, you'd need to buy new parts and outlay extra cash just to save 30W x 8 hours x 365 days. NOT worth it.

 

[aigomorla]

lolz reminds me of LED's...

i was going to do a LED conversion on my house...

realized how much it costs at what gain compared to CCFL's.

short story.... i have yet to move my house on LED's due to the $30+ price on them per 120V bulb fixture, vs the 3 dollar compact florescent u can get at any hardware store.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The power savings feature on the one LCD/LED TV we have is pretty cool. I hooked a wattage reader to it and it went from near 200w @ 100% "screen power" to something like 60w at like 15%..

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, I turn the brightness down on all of my LCD screens, they are too bright to begin with. I'm sure that saves a little bit of power too. I think I measured my 26" CCFL TN LCD at 63W or so. Not too bad, but not great. My 1280x1024 Dell UltraSharp LCD 19" (maybe 17") is like 19W.

I stopped doing folding@home, I set my Q9300 rigs to sleep after 30 minutes, and guess what? My electric bill went UP.

AC costs far outweigh anything that I do with my PCs.

I might start doing F@H again in the winter. That's how I heated my apt in the winter last year.

 

[MrTransistorm]

AC costs far outweigh anything that I do with my PCs.

So many people forget this important point. Far more energy can be saved by backing off a few degrees on heat and A/C.

During spring and fall, when I am able to forgo heat/air, my bill is usually around $45.

During the summer it's around $70, and that's with setting the A/C at 80F for a few days per week (the rest of the time I open my windows).

Winter is far worse. My highest bill last winter was about $140. That was with setting the heat at 66F during the day and 60F at night. Single-pane windows and a few small drafts are killing my heating efficiency. I live in a two-floor apartment, so there's not much I can do about that except be conservative with my heat.

All of this is including my P4 home server with four hard drives running 24/7! I haven't measured how much power it is using, but obviously it is getting swamped by heat and A/C usage.

I can only imagine how high my bill would be if I used heat and A/C like most people in this town. One of my neighbors runs his A/C non-stop (i.e. the compressor rarely turns off). His bill must be astronomical compared to mine!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I asked if this thread is for real because the "savings" is nothing to be concerned with.

By itself, it may not seem like much concern. But in my household, the electric bill is typically between $230 and $300 per month, and I'm supposed to cover everything over $100. I try to collect "as many grains of rice" as I can find -- looking for little savings here and there. You may laugh at my concern for control over electric consumption, but I'm retired, have a fixed income, can spend more of my time managing property and accounts, and budgeting to afford new computers.

We typically have five computers running 24/7 in this house. The server, of course, is going to run 24/7. My main workstation is also my Media Center, I sleep irregularly at night and keep the TV news on at a low volume. The other family members live upstairs, and I can probably shut down their computers at night with Remote Desktop without leaving my chair down here, but it is not one of my routine disciplines. And . . . I wouldn't want to irritate the others . . .

My Q6600 system used something like 290W at idle, including the monitor. It ran a RAID5 array of four disks. With the Z68 mobo and i7-2600, I've cut the disk power consumption to two, and if I didn't care about "TIVO" capability, it could easily be one drive. But I've increased performance considerably beyond the RAID5 "3Ware/AMCC 9650SE" benchmarks.

People who build computers come here to the forums with different profiles -- goals and objectives. This year, building this Sandy Bridge with these improvements was my goal and the focus of my objectives. How much I actually save in power consumption (I'll find out soon after installing my APC UPS software), is less important. But "better" is "better."

 

[velis]

You have two rigs, but they essentially serve one single purpose - you only have two because you want to have a OC'd gaming rig and that hikes your power consumption.
Looking at components in both your rigs I'd say all you need to do is get yourself one current generation rig and you will immediately idle at less than either of your rigs does now + you will have one rig for all your stuff.
However, if you really want to lower your web surfing power usage, you could look into a decent tablet or a brazos setup (either notebook or desktop). This would increase your gaming rig usage for all the stuff where you need the horses, but would significantly drop usage for everything else. Plus you can do most of your stuff from your couch
As others have noted, it's not prudent purchasing a new setup just so that it guzzles less power. The savings are not significant enough. However if you fancy the added power or some feature 2500K has over your current 920 - then go for it. The power savings will be a nice side benefit.
Last but not least you don't mention your monitors. You should know that monitors, especially larger ones will easily take 100W "in idle". Choosing a decent one you can dial that down into the 30's range. This is especially important for the monitor on your primary rig.

 

[KingFatty]

Single-pane windows and a few small drafts are killing my heating efficiency. I live in a two-floor apartment, so there's not much I can do about that except be conservative with my heat.

There is an inexpensive thing you could try for fixing your window heat loss. There is a clear plastic that acts as a second window, but you adhere to the wall surrounding the window, and you heat it with a hair dryer to shrink it and make it very clear and taught. So it therefore creates a double-pane window effect, by trapping a layer of air between your actual window and the layer of plastic that sits at the level of the wall surrounding the window. You might be able to attach it inside the window cavity closer to the first window, not sure.

However, while that plastic layer is in place, you won't be able to open/close the window. But in winter, I doubt you'll need to. The power savings far outweigh the cheap cost of this window thing, and it's very easy to apply/remove each winter. If you want to go really cheap, use saran-wrap and scotch tape, but I don't think that will look as nice because I don't know if it turns crystal clear and shrinks when exposed to a hair dryer.

I managed to pick up a free Core 2 Duo computer from a friend who upgraded, and it's much more efficient than my older file server when comparing the two using a kill-a-watt meter. Something about seeing the actual power consumption numbers is very empowering. Without seeing the numbers, I think it's very easy to ignore whether you should make changes to conserve power, because it's too abstract and "just not worth it".

I mean, I see the argument where it's just $5 a month savings if I turn off my computer each night, so I'll just leave it on all night and therefore I don't have to wait for it to boot up. But, most BIOS will let you set a wake-up alarm. So, just have your computer boot itself up every day 15 minutes before you need it, like as you are driving home from work. Or, set up your computer to boot up when you wake it up over LAN with the router controlled by your cell phone, when you are in another room taking a leak or something so your computer is ready to go when you get into the room. I mean, it's not much, but over the years it will add up and it's something you can set up automatically.