How much power does one computer use in a day?

[Ben98SentraSE]

Trying to convince some others to assimilate their extra machines (meaning leave them on all the time) but they are afraid of their electric bills going sky high. How much electricity does a normal power supply suck a day in comparison to like a 60W light bulb or TV set or something?

 

[DanC]

Yes, actually - good comparison.

A PC uses about the same amount of power as a 75 watt lightbulb.

Leaving it on 24x7 is easier on the system than shutting it off at night.... by far.

RC5 will never hurt it at all... if anything - it will improve the machine by making any goofy settings apparent. It's a great diagnostic tool. One reason we will be using it to tune our servers!

dc

 

[TOOCOOL]

i belive with the monitor off the average box will be about 100w

 

[JimMc]

I've also seen 100W--important that you let your monitor sleep, that's where the juice goes.

 

[Hellburner]

It varies depending on what CPU, clock speed, and voltage you're running. A typical box (monitor turned off) uses about 90 watts. I used a wattmeter and several single celerons (overclocked) for these numbers.

 

[Ben98SentraSE]

These boxes don't use monitors at all that I'm talking about. It's some boxes a blind linux-savvy couple I know use occasionally

Thanks for the quick responses

 

[Engineer]

A typical 800Mhz PC with 300W power supply will pull at rest running RC5 only would pull around 150 to 180 Watts depending on the Video Card, etc...

180 Watts x 24 Hours = 4320 Watts. Multiply that times the KW-hour rate and you get 4.320 KW per day and (example for Lexington) 4.320 x $.05 per KW-hour = $.216 per day, or 6.48 per month...

The above example is for Lexington, KY....Your mileage may vary...

(Can someone else back me on the avg. 180 Watts above...It may be less, I think?)...

 

[CurtOien]

If it's winter you'll be cutting your heating bill.

 

[DanC]

Actually... you're numbers may be a bit high...
Under load, yes - such as booting, etc.
Running peacefully, I still maintain it's closer to a 75Watt bulb.

This assumes box only, no monitor.

 

[Hellburner]

Engineer, that does seem a tad high on the power consumption, but boy do you have it made with your electric rates, I pay almost $.12/kwh.

Curt Oien, that's great in the winter but you get nailed twice in the summer if you're running air conditioning

 

[Engineer]

HB,

We have the 5th lowest rates in the country

 

[ElFenix]

the micro and flex atx computers draw less than 135 watts on boot, so they've got to be well under that during operation.