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Thread ID: 78922	2007-05-02 14:49:00	PSU Calculator and how much per hour my Media PC is costing in Power use	Chilling_Silence (9)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
546361	2007-05-02 14:49:00	Hey all So, I went here: www.extreme.outervision.com Very cool site, the Lite version online was interesting putting my main PCs details in compared with my Media PC. Anyways, it recommended I have a 226watt PSU. The stock 300watt one should suffice. Now how would I work out roughly what that's using to just sit there idly in the background? I believe that GeeXBox turns off the HDD after a few minutes, but cant remember for certain. No monitor hooked up, just to the TV which is switch off when not in use Or do I need to provide more info to get a *rough* idea, Im not after exact numbers... Cheers Chill.	Chilling_Silence (9)
546362	2007-05-02 19:17:00	A rough guess? Deduct HDD, optical etc, the stuff thats not doing anything while its idle. Or note the power bill for a month, then start turing the PC off when its not in use and compare the following months power bill. Dunno why people leave their PCs on when they aren't using them, doesn't take long to boot..........	pctek (84)
546363	2007-05-02 22:33:00	Chill, I have a power monitor that plugs in-line, showing instantaneous and cumulative consumption. A while ago I put it in-line with just the PC tower on a previous rig (P4 2 GHz, 1024 RAM, 2 HDD 2 Optical Drives) and the average consumption was 140 watts per hour. That was 0.14 units per hour or 3.36 units a day.	godfather (25)
546364	2007-05-02 23:02:00	Dunno why people leave their PCs on when they aren't using them, doesn't take long to boot.......... I wholeheartedly agree, Adding a monitor the cost is typically in the region of $200 -$ 300 per year (and rising) for a moderate spec PC. Failure rates are not reduced but turning off as the hardware will be obsolete well before that becomes a factor.	godfather (25)
546365	2007-05-02 23:15:00	Interesting. We're contemplating having a solar panel installed for water heating. They reckon it'll save 75% of our two-person's household water heating costs. They say that water heating can be around 40% of total power useage. So at a cost of slightly less than $4000 we'll recoup the outlay after about ten years, without taking loss of interest into the equation. So saving the power wasted on leaving the computer on all day would easily equal the amount saved by using solar powered heating. Problem here is that I use the damn machine all day so switching off isn't an option!	Greg (193)
546366	2007-05-02 23:55:00	Google have been working on more efficient designs for PSU's. They claim the existing multi voltage designs can waste 30-45% of input power and propose using 12v only converted as required on the motherboard.	PaulD (232)
546367	2007-05-03 00:40:00	Problem here is that I use the damn machine all day so switching off isn't an option! But thats in use. There are a lot of people in my town that go out all day yet the PC is left on. The worst ones - they leave the PC on, the TV on and a radio. Why? To entertain the spiders?	pctek (84)
546368	2007-05-03 00:41:00	Consumer magazine is a great resource if you're into cutting down your power bill, they regularly have articles about this. The main question is is it worth the initial cost for the potential saving. common recommendations are: Insulating older water cylinders or upgrading them Using cold water for washing machine replacing light bulbs with energy savers The solar water heating you mentioned switching off unused appliances at the wall Avoid excessive use of dryers replacing fridge / freezers more than 10 years old A modest pc running at idle would be lucky to use 150-200W. At 200W if the power company charged 20c a KW/h that would equate to 4c an hour, 96c a day, $6.72 a week, or $350 a year. This is at the very top end in my opinion and if you only count the times when you're not really using it then it's much less. If you don't want to shut the pc down can you put it in standby? this will greatly reduce the power consumption and restart almost instantly, the downside is some pcs don't restore reliably from standby mode.	dugimodo (138)
546369	2007-05-03 02:21:00	I'd love to turn my PC off, but my bastard of a brother always hogs it up with torrent downloading. He managed to get 22GB in 6 days with Go Large when it first came out.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
546370	2007-05-03 07:29:00	qazwsxokmijn, I just did 12GB in the last 24 hours ;) Sounds like its worth turning it off then, or putting it into Standby. Its running GeeXBox so it takes next to no time to turn on again, and data corruption aint an issue, theres nothing but a 10MB OS on the HDD that takes 2 mins to re-install :D Thanks for the feedback guys	Chilling_Silence (9)
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