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

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

'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

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

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Thanks, robots.

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?

"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.

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... ;-)

"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