running cost

[fishfingers]

Helo, I was hoping someone may be able to put my wifes mind at rest. We recieved our electricity bill today and my wife thinks that all of a sudden [due to me having adsl now and the comp being permanantely on] that our bill is much higher than normal. Can anyone tell me how much or how I can find out just how much the average computer costs to run.
Thanks,
David

 

[alrocky]

Well, if your electric bill just shot up and the only thing different is that you're running the computer 24/7, then it's the darn computer. Do you havve to have it on 24/7? Do leave the TV on when you are not watching it or do you turn it off? Save money and turn it off.

 

[Bleep]

Go to your local power co. and borrow the protable meter, It is just a regular meter with a plug and socket on it, plug the machine into it for 24 hours and then calculate how much it costs.
Bleep

 

[ObiDon]

If you left your system on 24 hours a day AND it is a higher end Athlon XP AND it runs full load all the time (like cracking RC-5 or SETI or something) you should still only see a $5-$10 per month difference depending on your rates.

It might help to set your screensaver/power scheme to turn off your monitor after X amount of time of inactivity.

Edit -- activity is the opposite of inactivity. D'oh!!!

 

[madthumbs]

Do not use screen savers, instead use the energy saver feature or turn the monitor off when not using it.

 

[ObiDon]

Originally posted by: madthumbs
Do not use screen savers, instead use the energy saver feature or turn the monitor off when not using it.

That's what I'm saying. That power-saving setting is located in the screensaver tab

 

[fishfingers]

Thank you all for your responses, so I take it that its the monitor that eats up the juice, I do infact turn monitor off when not actually at the comp, its the cost running the comp itself that concerns me. Actually I think that it costs very little to have the comp itself switched on all the time, but just needed someone elses opinion to show the missus.
thanks again
David