didnt know that it’d cost me this much …
thanks … good post …
Cool stuff. I also used the Kill a watt to measure my PC’s etc… and was surprised at the power they use even when off. My cable DVR uses 26 watts when off. Here are my results http://www.technogab.com/?p=49
wow power is expensive in california. Are you all paying people to genreate the power manually? Id invest in a hamster and a wheel or something.
I live in huntsville, alabama, and these are my electric rates:
$5.77 +
First 1,400 kWh: $0.06481 per kWh
Over 1,400 kWh: $0.07282 per kWh
have you tried downloading the free program from localcooling.com
it saves you energy on your pc and tells you how much money you have saved and how many trees and other interesting facts.
plus your helping cut down polution
wow… most/all of you are getting HAMMERED on your power cost… 0.05057$/KWh here
the cost of reading this blog post…you have wasted thousands of dollars of billable hours of the people reading this blog…you can’t be serious about this…$200!!! come on man put a donate button on your blog I will help out if things are rough
One problem for your electric bill is that you live in California. Your electricity is over twice as expensive as electricity is in Virginia. In Virginia, electricity is 5.61 cents per kWh and during the summer it is 6.90 cents per kWh.
Why can’t some people understand it is NOT just about $200. It’s one of the steps towards saving our planet/OURSELFS. And you american people should know about climate changes, because you have some problems with weather in this times, don’t you?
And yes, computer “eats” quite a lot energy when it is off… switch on the PSU is your friend…
don’t forget to unplug all those little wall warts when you’re not using them. 2-5 watts 24 hours a day * # of wall warts adds up
Guys. How much money do you spend for beer? 16$ per month from computer in any saving never will 0$.
My point is: save money on unnecessary stuff. One less double-mak per month.
And good idea replace ALL bulbs at home to fluorescent it save 4 time energy. And sometimes turn off unnecessary light.
R.Watkins says energy consumption should be quoted in terms of power used by a lightbulb… and that an average lightbulb is 60 watts. Ummm, does anybody really buy 60 watt bulbs? I mostly buy 100 watt bulbs. I checked at work, and with friends and family… all 100 watts, only 60 watt except in lights that REALLY need it… I guess everybody I know is an energy hog.
Oh, by the way… I lied, sort of. 8 of the 27 lights in my home are compact fluorescents… but the other 19 will NOT accept a CF bulb because the lower part of a dang CF bulb is larger than an incandescent. So, 17 bulbs are 100 watt incandescent, 2 are 600 watt, and 8 are CF equivelent of 100 watt.
Nuff said… sorry to rant at you, Bob…
I underclock my computers when I don’t need full speed but also unlike conventional powermanagers I underclock the graphics card too. My G5 has its graphics card underclocked by about 25% currently and it’s using much less power. I really only bump the graphics back up for games now so if you have a graphics card that can be manipulated in such a way then that’s a nice way to save some power but keep your superior hardware.
Wow i guess it really varies where you live, i live in western mass we pay 0.26kwh alot more than most of you people, but i guess thats what most people are saying new england pays the most in the country.
i should mention that its 0.13 for the actual electricity and 0.13 for the distribution fee, effectively $0.26 which is outrageous in my opinion.
“If you cannot afford the $200 to leave your computers on, then you will not be able to afford the computer, internet connection and software that you will need to operate the computer in the first place.”
That’s ignorant nonsense. A used computer, if a few years old, is still going to be great for email/web stuff yet will be between free and inexpensive. Some organizations give them freely to disabled or elderly folk; some people give them to poor family/friends. A person can run Free Software for the OS/apps, and there are plenty of affordable ISP options out there. Doesn’t everyone know that?
Anyone that is disabled and on SSI can see $200 as a tiny fortune, but Internet access ranks up there just below food for us. Often it’s the best chance to interact with others (or contribute to society, or gain higher education), for the same reasons we’re not employed: either we’re too unwell, or the community has obstacles most people couldn’t pass, or both.
If $200 is nothing for you, like someone else said, give it to another person or organization that can really use those funds. Oh, and try to educate yourself about how others live…your comment made you sound a lot more ignorant (or immature) than you probably are.
To the person that wrote the article: thank you. Not just for the post, but the great tips that followed in comments. Anyone that is curious about the disability community online, I’ve put a great blog’s URL (not mine) in the website field.
Thanks for the info, I hadn’t thought too deeply about the desktop computer I have that’s always on. I heard they were pretty energy efficient, so I put it out of mind. Knowing an estimate of how much it costs to keep it on even when I’m not using it will end up in the computer being off most of the time I’m not using it now.
I wish power management worked worth a crap on my 2005 Toshiba laptop. More than half the time when it comes out of standby, the Wi-Fi connection is lost (says it’s connected but isn’t). Sometimes I can get POP mail but not Web, sometimes the other way around, sometimes neither. Repairing the connection doesn’t usually work. I end up rebooting.
“If you cannot afford the $200 to leave your computers on, then you will not be able to afford the computer, internet connection and software that you will need to operate the computer in the first place.”
ha ha. Hey enzo, if you cannot afford to send me a check for $200 every year, then you cannot afford your computer and you should sell it and cancel your internet connection and sell everything you own…
Cost is one thing, but it’s also good for the environment to conserve energy. Let saving $ motivate you but have helping the environment be your reason to conserve energy.
I have been designing a home server that will be on 24/7. Power draw is critical (as is quiet operation while idle), but cost is also important. If I had ~$1000, I would simply buy a Synology NAS server (which only draws 18W when idle). But, I figure I can make a more versatile system for ~$750. AMD’s new CPUs have a Cool ‘n’ Quiet mode, where they drop down to very low powers when idle (like 4W). Right now I am evaluating ClarkConnect as the OS - it looks like it will do the job nicely.
So I am using some old hardware I have lying around until I finalize the design (a 2400 Athlon XP). Originally, it drew 190W on idle. Between disabling some unused parallel ports, on-board sound, under-clocking the CPU, I reduced it to 130W. Replacing the ATI 9700 Pro AIW with a cheap PCI video card saved another 40W - I am now at around 80W on idle (with only 1 drive though).
Look for a 80-plus Power Supply ( http://www.80plus.org/). Typical PSUs are only ~60% efficient, which means that 200W go in, but only 120W actually do anything useful for you. With an 80%+ PSU, you only need 150W input (savings of around 50W/yr = ~$60, more than the cost of the PSU. Newegg has the SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W for only $55.