electricity

Just curious does a 2.8ghz w/ 600w power supply use a lot of electricity? Should I be shutting it down every day? My electric bill is like $240/month and I'm trying to figure out where its going. I'm thinking AC and I have a 55" TV that my grandmother watches constantly, and I have a 1000watt surround that is always on too. Thats all I can think of.

 

If you're AC is running a lot, that's probably, by far, the biggest power drain in the house. And, if the AC is low on refrigerant, it may be running more than necessary and needs to be serviced by an AC technician.

I have no idea how much power that 55 inch TV consumes. Maybe grandma needs to pay part of the electric bill if she wants to watch it "constantly".

Of course, all aspects of power consumption in the house should be scrutinzed. Why do you have that 1000 Watt surround "always on"? And, yes, shutdown your computer at night; during the day, you should probably at least be using Standby or Sleep mode to reduce power consumption during periods of inactivity.

 

Ya, A/C refrigerators/freezers and hot water are your biggest users. I just looked up a 47" LCD/HDTV and it uses 240W of power, not that much compared to the others and a PC doesn't use much, you mention a 600W PSU but it's not drawing that much on a regular basis. I would agree with usaf that the A/C is the worst culprit and then work down the line of probable consumption.

 

ty for the fast replies guys

 

No AC here but I use an average of 1200 units ( kwatt-hours) per quarter (3 months) for domestic purposes.

 

Here in Australia, "they" are thinking of bringing in the 5 star ratings for the big TV's, like the 5 star rating on Fridges as they use so much power.
Also we have (in the North of Australia) homes fitted with ceiling fans so you can run ceiling fans instead of air-conditioning. Smaller TV and ceiling fans would be a hell of a lot cheaper than your setup. Bazza

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I have ceiling fans in about every room in the house. Would that be a cheaper way to do things? Leave the fans on all the time?

 

Not all the time. Only in the room you are in for the cheapest $$$. Try opening the windows, if you can, even cheaper still. Bazza

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The biggest thing you can do is physically UNPLUG things when not in use. Even if an appliance (such as a TV or computer) uses a significant amount of power ALL the time when plugged in, even if it is not turned on.

The simple way to do this would be to buy one of those power strips and just unplug the power strip so you only have to plug in one cord when you are ready to use your equipment.

It's funny/sad that I read the other day... over the lifetime of an average microwave, more power is used to run the clock than ALL of the times it is used to cook food combined. That's insane, if you ask me.

 

C'mon computerate geeks should be able to assess such tales for what they are - fairy tales.

The average microwave uses something like 1000 times as much energy when cooking as when on standby. There are 1440 minutes in a day. So if you use your microwave for less than 1440/1000 minutes = 1.44 minutes per day this is true.

In fact my microwave has a mechanical timer so uses no energy on standby.

You would do better comparing the energy used to manufacture the beast in the first place to that used in its service life.

 

Solid state devices, such as LCD monitors, will not use as much juice on standbye as CRTs. A lot of standbye functions, such as clocks, use about as much juice as a wristwatch, which is pretty small indeed, somewhere in the range of 1/1,000,000 of a watt. CRT devices such as TV's and monitors that are truely on standbye keep the filaments hot, to reduce the warm up time. Remember, CRT's are tubes.

 

Likely culprits for high electricity consumption are: Over-use of air conditioning, radiant space heaters, excessive use of hot water, and the running of additional refrigerators/freezers. Check your hot water system for leaks (faulty relief valves and leaking taps are often responsible for costly electricity bills)and in general, just turn off anything that doesn't need to be on.

 

Your pc is really the least of your worries... i leave mine on day in and out and have seen at most a 5$ increase in my electric usage. granted I am in NY and obviously my rates arent going to necessarily be the same as yours but shouldnt be that far off seeing as how i have to pay out to National Greed (Grid). These people actually taxed us because the weather was to warm last december and not enough people were using power so .. <breaks into whiney voice> the werent making enough money <end whiney>. Now what i am about to say seems like common sense to me but here it goes anyway.... wouldnt it make more sense to charge less money in the winter anyway when more people are using...( at least in the north of the U.S. ) more energy and more in the summer when they typically use less.... oh wait... then the rich couldnt get rich... damn you capitalism... all for the rich and some for the rest... Sorry . End rant. So in conclusion we have learned that your pc is not really your greatest enemy.