If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
A few months ago I posted about a AC electrical power meter I'd found
advertized for $18.95. I just purchased one, and have found it useful and accurate. My initial idea was to use it to check PC power consumption for different operating modes and loads. But what with the surge in energy prices ... The manufacturer is P3 ( www.p3international.com ). I bought Model P4400 Kill A Watt. This is a US/Canada model, 125 VAC 50/60 Hz 1875 VA Max. The unit is about the size of a box of kitchen matches, LCD screen and control buttons, a three prong AC receptacle on the front and a 3 prong grounded plug on the back. The AC connections are standard NA, two parallel blades for hot and neutral and a round ground pin. Only one drawback in use. This model has no internal battery, so you can only read data while it is plugged in to AC power, and the data store is lost when the unit is unplugged. This is especially a shortcoming when you attempt to use it in a wall receptacle a few inches above the floor. In aid of not crawling on my belly, I use a short extension cored B^) Reporting capabilities: Volt Amp VA Watt Hz Power Factor Kilowatt Hours Elapsed Time. I used the unit with my Windows Vista Home Premium / E4400 @2.7 HGZ & 1.25 v / 2 X 1 GByte Patriot DDR2 1066 / EVGA 680i / EVGA 8800 GT 320 MByte / Antec Neo 550 Watt modular power supply / 2 X 500 GByte Seagate 7200 RPM SATA / DVD R/W/RW / CD-ROM R/W/RW / Creative Fata1ity Platinum system. I was pretty amazed at the small difference in power consumption between idling along and heavy CPU / Graphics loads. With no power saving features or throttling, about 195 Watts at idle and about 225 Watts under heavy load (monitor and other external peripherals not included, drives not heavily in use.) So, while waiting for Nehalem, I think I'll investigate PC power usage. Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. Not much IF YOU TURN YOUR SYSTEM OFF WHEN NOT IN USE. But I've left my system on when not in you more than I should have (think distribute computing projects.) I'd always assumed that there'd be a big difference between power consumption and high load power consumption - but that evidently isn't always the case. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, and in my case that's without monitor, modem, or wireless router. And more in a year than the purchase cost, March 2007, of my CPU! Phil Weldon |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
Here in Atlanta, for the
moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, $0.016 you say? Hmmm |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
'Shadow Tek' wrote:
$0.016 you say? Hmmm _____ Yes. Phil Weldon "ShadowTek" wrote in message .236... Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, $0.016 you say? Hmmm |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
I have an old Kill a Watt meter. I recently built for someone else an
nforce 6100 micro atx with a Sempron 1.8 gig which, by lottery, ran at about 1.25 volts (they're listed at 3 different voltages, tha being the lowest). It had 512 of ram and a WD Caviar SE 160 HD. With the Antec Earthwatts 380 psu, it idled at only 35 watts! I loaded the 3D and cpu up totally and it rose to 59 watts. -- Ed Light Better World News TV Channel: http://realnews.com Bring the Troops Home: http://bringthemhomenow.org http://antiwar.com Iraq Veterans Against the War: http://ivaw.org http://couragetoresist.org Send spam to the FTC at Thanks, robots. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
In message ShadowTek
wrote: Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, $0.016 you say? Hmmm That sounds about right... What is confusing about that? |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
"DevilsPGD" wrote in message
... In message ShadowTek wrote: Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, $0.016 you say? Hmmm That sounds about right... What is confusing about that? Nothing probably, Phill probably posted it because he was board. Fievel. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Phil Weldon" typed:
A few months ago I posted about a AC electrical power meter I'd found advertized for $18.95. I just purchased one, and have found it useful and accurate. My initial idea was to use it to check PC power consumption for different operating modes and loads. But what with the surge in energy prices ... The manufacturer is P3 ( www.p3international.com ). I bought Model P4400 Kill A Watt. This is a US/Canada model, 125 VAC 50/60 Hz 1875 VA Max. The unit is about the size of a box of kitchen matches, LCD screen and control buttons, a three prong AC receptacle on the front and a 3 prong grounded plug on the back. The AC connections are standard NA, two parallel blades for hot and neutral and a round ground pin. Only one drawback in use. This model has no internal battery, so you can only read data while it is plugged in to AC power, and the data store is lost when the unit is unplugged. This is especially a shortcoming when you attempt to use it in a wall receptacle a few inches above the floor. In aid of not crawling on my belly, I use a short extension cored B^) Reporting capabilities: Volt Amp VA Watt Hz Power Factor Kilowatt Hours Elapsed Time. I used the unit with my Windows Vista Home Premium / E4400 @2.7 HGZ & 1.25 v / 2 X 1 GByte Patriot DDR2 1066 / EVGA 680i / EVGA 8800 GT 320 MByte / Antec Neo 550 Watt modular power supply / 2 X 500 GByte Seagate 7200 RPM SATA / DVD R/W/RW / CD-ROM R/W/RW / Creative Fata1ity Platinum system. I was pretty amazed at the small difference in power consumption between idling along and heavy CPU / Graphics loads. With no power saving features or throttling, about 195 Watts at idle and about 225 Watts under heavy load (monitor and other external peripherals not included, drives not heavily in use.) So, while waiting for Nehalem, I think I'll investigate PC power usage. Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. Not much IF YOU TURN YOUR SYSTEM OFF WHEN NOT IN USE. But I've left my system on when not in you more than I should have (think distribute computing projects.) I'd always assumed that there'd be a big difference between power consumption and high load power consumption - but that evidently isn't always the case. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, and in my case that's without monitor, modem, or wireless router. And more in a year than the purchase cost, March 2007, of my CPU! Phil Weldon I have a similar device (albeit with a few more functions and a battery back-up, cost me NZ$40 not long after you posted about the Kill A Watt) and recently tested my PC and monitor through it for a week. PC: E4500 @3.3GHz @ 1.32V / 2 x 1GB Transcend DDR2-800 @ 1.8V / Leadtek 7800GT 256MB / Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP / AcBel R8/700W PSU (with active PFC) / 2 x 500GB + 2 x 320GB Seagate 7200 SATA II HDDs / 2x DVD R/RW/RAM / 3.5" FDD / several fans. Monitor 19" 1280 x 1024 Generic LCD. (The monitor averaged 25 W alone) The complete system idled at ~178 W, running SETI/BOINC at 30% duty cycle it used ~185 W. Prime95 took it to just under 210 W and gaming peaked at 225W. After a week of normal usage (if there is such a thing) my PC had consumed 28.9 KWH at a cost of NZ$7.23 (25NZc / KWH). I run this PC 24/7 and I'm guessing it'll cost me a little more than NZ$375 for a year's use. A little less than the CPU and mobo cost last year. The meter is currently on my home theatre system for a week. Previously it monitored my tropical fish tank (18 KWH / week, winter). Cheers, -- Shaun. DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it. If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
PC Power Consumption
"Phil Weldon" wrote in message m... A few months ago I posted about a AC electrical power meter I'd found advertized for $18.95. I just purchased one, and have found it useful and accurate. My initial idea was to use it to check PC power consumption for different operating modes and loads. But what with the surge in energy prices ... The manufacturer is P3 ( www.p3international.com ). I bought Model P4400 Kill A Watt. This is a US/Canada model, 125 VAC 50/60 Hz 1875 VA Max. The unit is about the size of a box of kitchen matches, LCD screen and control buttons, a three prong AC receptacle on the front and a 3 prong grounded plug on the back. The AC connections are standard NA, two parallel blades for hot and neutral and a round ground pin. Only one drawback in use. This model has no internal battery, so you can only read data while it is plugged in to AC power, and the data store is lost when the unit is unplugged. This is especially a shortcoming when you attempt to use it in a wall receptacle a few inches above the floor. In aid of not crawling on my belly, I use a short extension cored B^) Reporting capabilities: Volt Amp VA Watt Hz Power Factor Kilowatt Hours Elapsed Time. I used the unit with my Windows Vista Home Premium / E4400 @2.7 HGZ & 1.25 v / 2 X 1 GByte Patriot DDR2 1066 / EVGA 680i / EVGA 8800 GT 320 MByte / Antec Neo 550 Watt modular power supply / 2 X 500 GByte Seagate 7200 RPM SATA / DVD R/W/RW / CD-ROM R/W/RW / Creative Fata1ity Platinum system. I was pretty amazed at the small difference in power consumption between idling along and heavy CPU / Graphics loads. With no power saving features or throttling, about 195 Watts at idle and about 225 Watts under heavy load (monitor and other external peripherals not included, drives not heavily in use.) So, while waiting for Nehalem, I think I'll investigate PC power usage. Here in Atlanta, for the moment, my per KWH charge is about $0.08 US, so an hours computer use is about $0.016. Not much IF YOU TURN YOUR SYSTEM OFF WHEN NOT IN USE. But I've left my system on when not in you more than I should have (think distribute computing projects.) I'd always assumed that there'd be a big difference between power consumption and high load power consumption - but that evidently isn't always the case. And $0.016/ hour X 24 hours X 365 = $140.00, and in my case that's without monitor, modem, or wireless router. And more in a year than the purchase cost, March 2007, of my CPU! Phil Weldon That is interesting and surprising that the difference between idle and heavy load is so small. Our power rates are somewhat lower (vary between 5.0c-6.5c KWH) with a rural co-op, but still a substantial amount over a year. My system probably makes up that difference in price because I am sure it will use much more power with the two video cards, water pump, DSL modem etc. I also have a Samsung 24" LCD that probably uses more electricity than most would think. Have you set up Vista to go to sleep mode and see what kind of power usage you get? I am waiting on Nehalem too and will probably not do another build until after Xmas. Ed |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Power Consumption | VanShania | AMD x86-64 Processors | 0 | February 6th 06 04:55 PM |
PSU Power consumption | Maxx Taxx | General | 8 | July 3rd 05 09:46 PM |
Power Consumption | MAN | General | 4 | October 5th 04 02:59 PM |
Power Consumption | MAN | Homebuilt PC's | 4 | October 5th 04 02:59 PM |
Power Consumption | Vitico | Abit Motherboards | 0 | December 11th 03 04:48 AM |