saving money from turning computer off ...

[glugglug]

'm not going to bother with numbers now - I'm just not in the mood. But you need to consider the efficiency of the power supply. If your CPU is consuming 40W, then most likely your power supply is consuming on the order of 70W... Thus you need to nearly double the cost of everything in this thread.

40W is NOT idle power used by the CPU only. You can see how much a test 2GHz P4 used when running different programs here (someone did a study to see the effect of compiler optimization on power consumption). The idle CPU consumption is only 10.5W. The 40W is figuring that plus another 10 or so for the video card, plus another 10 or so for the HD, 5 for the mobo & RAM, plus some slack.

Plus you have to consider if your house is using the heater or the AC. If it is using the heater, the computer power use produces heat which is a savings on your heating bill. So in cold climates turning off your computer in winter won't help your bills. However the opposite happens in summer where you use the AC. Then for every watt of power your computer produces, your AC must cool another watt. Thus in summer when you use the AC you must double the costs.

Any decent AC has at least a 10:1 ratio of heat moved to energy consumed. (The ratio is the EER rating on the yellow sticker it came with). So the additional AC needed to offset the heat generated by the computer is only an extra 10% added onto the computer's power consumption.

40W x 24 hours/day x 30 days/month = 28.8kWh/month. Multiply by your local rate/kWh (actually extremely high cause you are in NY) it comes to $3.74 per month in the city (or $1.25 for 8 hours/day), not sure on the island. Clearly not worth shutting down.

 

[Sid59]

i compensate for my running my PC 24/7 by:

recycling cans, bottles, cardboard, paper, etc
use each piece of paper until i can't scribble no more
instead of throwing alot of the trash out, i compost it.

 

[dullard]

40W is NOT idle power used by the CPU only. You can see how much a test 2GHz P4 used when running different programs here (someone did a study to see the effect of compiler optimization on power consumption). The idle CPU consumption is only 10.5W. The 40W is figuring that plus another 10 or so for the video card, plus another 10 or so for the HD, 5 for the mobo & RAM, plus some slack.

Correct and I didn't dispute your numbers at all - In fact I used the numbers you posted. I just used CPU as a general term for everything in there. I used your 40W number knowing that there are multiple parts. Maybe I should have been more clear. 40W for everything in the case (except for the power supply) would require about a 70W consumption from the power supply. Give or take a few watts. We can get into minor details - is the screen saver on, is it running SETI while not in use, is it put into standby or not, etc. I'm just saying that everyone forgot the efficiency of the power supply in their posts.

Any decent AC has at least a 10:1 ratio of heat moved to energy consumed. (The ratio is the EER rating on the yellow sticker it came with). So the additional AC needed to offset the heat generated by the computer is only an extra 10% added onto the computer's power consumption.

10:1 is good on a new unit. But then not many of us have perfectly tuned, rather new units. Maybe we can agree on 5:1. Again I was just rambling that it is more complicated than the simple picture being discussed so far (is it a heat pump or a furnace, what is the outside temp, etc).

40W x 24 hours/day x 30 days/month = 28.8kWh/month. Multiply by your local rate/kWh (actually extremely high cause you are in NY) it comes to $3.74 per month in the city (or $1.25 for 8 hours/day), not sure on the island. Clearly not worth shutting down.

Again you are forgetting the ~60% efficient power supply. I guess some may be a bit more efficient - but they aren't 100% efficient. If you use your computer 1 hour a day (quite a typical number for the average user), shutting it off will save you 23 hours of electricity. Thus roughly $5-$6 a month savings occurs by using your numbers. That is $60 a year. Or in 5 years you can get a free Dell hot deals computer. I get a bottom of the line computer every 5 years. Thus your "not worth it" pays for all my computer expenses combined. It costs nothing to shut it down - so why not?

 

[rh71]

Ok, clarification time then...

I have a 350Watt PS running a 1.0GHz Athlon/Tbird processor, GF3 Ti200, and a 7200RPM HDD.

I do use Hibernate instead of ShutDown so that saves on boot up time in the mornings... by a lot.

I just had a 30GB 5400RPM WD drive die on me just yesterday, after almost 3 years of (almost) 24/7 use (only started shutting down nightly last month to test). Was getting CRCs... and just RMA'd today.

Just providing more info for you to ponder into your equations... but I think if it's just a $5 max savings per month, I'm not even going to worry about shutting down nightly...

 

[Mallow]

I turn my computer off because all the lights keep me up at night I guess I save some money too

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Codewiz

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

not to mention thats a piss poor reason to waste power and pollute.


me? i leave my faucet running 24/7 cuz i find it limits wear and tear on the on/off valve

Cry me a damn river.....

Why don't you bitch and moan that the Anandtech servers run 24/7? How about we only have the forum available 8 hours a day so we don't pollute. Give me a damn break......

anandtech servers run 24/7 doing nothing at night?

 

[Rufio]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Codewiz

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I leave mine on because I personally think it will increase hard drive life. The heating and cooling of mechanical devices is not good.

Do you leave your car running constantly, too? wouldn't want to the engine to repeatedly heat up and cool down.

not to mention thats a piss poor reason to waste power and pollute.


me? i leave my faucet running 24/7 cuz i find it limits wear and tear on the on/off valve

Cry me a damn river.....

Why don't you bitch and moan that the Anandtech servers run 24/7? How about we only have the forum available 8 hours a day so we don't pollute. Give me a damn break......

anandtech servers run 24/7 doing nothing at night?

nothing? no way! the best posters post at night!!

i knew a girl who didn't want to leave her computer on for more than 4 hours because she was scared IT WOULD MELT.

NO SH!T.