Quad Power Consumption Graph

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: pm

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: pm

Wow.. wonder what that works out to over a year in power costs.. I leave my tower on 24/7 OUCH!

We pay $0.07/kWh for electricity. For a ~125W computer idling 24/7 in my area (my computer idles at about 115W measured at the wall), one would pay $0.42/day which is $6.30 per month.

125W would take 8 hours to equal a killowatt. You would get 3 kWh throughout the day so you would pay $0.21 per day, not $0.42 per day???

Is my math fuzzy or yours?

I wrote it for a 250W computer and then decided that was too high, changed it to 125W thinking that was more realistic. When I changed it, I changed 125W and the final answer - $6.30 ($0.21/day * 30 days) but not the intermediate one.

Thanks for the correction.

LOL, I didn't pay attention to the fact that you did indeed have the total right for the month!

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
For my actual application of interest that I do run 24/7 with all cores loaded I see about 190W pulled from the wall. About the same as a couple 100W light bulbs left on all the time.

I live solar electric, with an electric budget of ~3KWHr per day. Those pair of 100W bulbs running 24/7 would be devastating for me. I have every device which doesn't need 24/7 on demand power, refrigerator for example, connected in series throught a switch box. This eliminates all ghost loads.

It's possible to live comfortably w/o massive amounts of electricity.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: 21stHermit

Originally posted by: Idontcare
For my actual application of interest that I do run 24/7 with all cores loaded I see about 190W pulled from the wall. About the same as a couple 100W light bulbs left on all the time.

I live solar electric, with an electric budget of ~3KWHr per day. Those pair of 100W bulbs running 24/7 would be devastating for me. I have every device which doesn't need 24/7 on demand power, refrigerator for example, connected in series throught a switch box. This eliminates all ghost loads.

It's possible to live comfortably w/o massive amounts of electricity.

Surely possible, but not everyone can make the choice to do so without impacting other commitments they have made (such as my commitment to my children that they can read by the light of something other than candlelight at night )

Also I make my living from the computational results generated by 6 quad-core desktop systems running 24/7.

Are you arguing that your entire lifestyle footprint 24/7 is bought and paid for entirely with 3KWh of electricity?

Or do you have your place of employment subsidize your desire for heat/AC/lights/prepared food/etc for 8hrs a day?

Kudos if you managed to constrain your electrical footprint to a mere 3KWh/day.

But if you live at home like an electricity miser only to create your income and wealth by working in a job that has a huge electrical footprint then you have to agree your claims to alternative energy nobility are a tad impure.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: pm

Let's round it up tp 500W...or 0.5 KWh...still is only costing you about 10 pennies an hour while you play even if you live in HW and pay $0.20/KWh.

"HW" is Hollywood? Or Hawaii? They seriously pay $0.20/kWh? Wow. At $4.50/W, solar starts to look like a viable option in either of those places with the Fed tax credit.

Hawaii. It's $0.2081/KWh on average.

Electricity Rate Comparison by State

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: jhu
speaking of power consumption, why do we use kwh instead of joules (or megajoules)? after unit conversion, it's all joules

Because kWh is a more convenient unit which is more easily visualised. 1 unit = A 100W lightbulb burning for 10 hours is pretty easy to understand, and represents a useful unit of time, and doesn't require dealing with the number of seconds in a hour.

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: 21stHermit

Originally posted by: Idontcare
For my actual application of interest that I do run 24/7 with all cores loaded I see about 190W pulled from the wall. About the same as a couple 100W light bulbs left on all the time.

I live solar electric, with an electric budget of ~3KWHr per day. Those pair of 100W bulbs running 24/7 would be devastating for me. I have every device which doesn't need 24/7 on demand power, refrigerator for example, connected in series throught a switch box. This eliminates all ghost loads.

It's possible to live comfortably w/o massive amounts of electricity.

Surely possible, but not everyone can make the choice to do so without impacting other commitments they have made (such as my commitment to my children that they can read by the light of something other than candlelight at night )

Also I make my living from the computational results generated by 6 quad-core desktop systems running 24/7.

Are you arguing that your entire lifestyle footprint 24/7 is bought and paid for entirely with 3KWh of electricity?

That's just my electric footprint. Add to that my thermal footprint: 3 cords of wood and 350 gals of propane per year. A small portion of which feeds a 6KW generator for when the sun is gone for 3+ days.

Or do you have your place of employment subsidize your desire for heat/AC/lights/prepared food/etc for 8hrs a day?

Like you I use a computer for my income (self-employed), part of my electric footprint. Just that a laptop is sufficient, don't need 6 quads 24/7.

But if you live at home like an electricity miser only to create your income and wealth by working in a job that has a huge electrical footprint then you have to agree your claims to alternative energy nobility are a tad impure.

You be the judge.