Running Costs

[thia d up]

Ive just purchased my first home desk top computer ( second hand "old" ) and Ive been using it on a daily basis ( 3 hours a day ) for a month now, Today I had my electricity bill covering the month's use of the computer and to my suprise the bill is about 50 % higher than my normal electricity bill's . can any one give me an idea how much a home computer would cost to run ...?

Thanks......

[johng]

Old computers ( generally ) will consume more electricity than newer ones, but

50 % higher than ??????

If your last electricity bill was 100 baht and it's now 200 then I'm not surprised.

However if your last bill was 2000 baht and it's now 4000 baht

[penzman]

Let`s say... Every time you crack open a beer, you`ve just spent a weeks worth of electricity for your pc, turned on 24/7.

Forgot to mention that I often leave the pc on but the monitor is turned off.

Edited November 4, 2004 by penzman

[Richard-BKK]

Hello thia d up,

I have two computers running whole day, one Pentium Prescott 3.4 and a Celeron D 2.8 both with 17" monitors and my electric bill is never over 550Bht. This is around 100Bht higher then without the computers.

Maybe it is better that you check your electric bill a bit more.

Older computers (Pentium, Pentium III, etc) use surely less power then power hungry new CPU's, my Prescott computer will not even startup with a power supply of 350Watt. Older computers generally have power supplies of 250 to maximal 350Watt.

With kind regards,

Richard

[paulfr]

Your power bill due to your computer will be

Total hrs/month x kilowatts dissipated in computer x Baht/kw-hr you pay

So

Hrs = 30 days x 24 hrs/day = 720 hrs

kilowatts = let's say 300 watts = 0.3 kilowatts for CPU and monitor

Baht/kw-hr or Baht/unit = 5 Baht

Then your bill should be ...

720 x 0.3 x 5B = 1080 Baht

If your CPU only took 150 watts on average, it would be half that.

And if you were paying 3B rather than 5B it would be 0.3 that or 324 Baht.

I don't see how Richard-BKK gets away with only 100B for 2 computers

running 24/7.

Hope this helps you

Cheers ....

[waldwolf]

If your system utilizes a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV type monitor, then 50 to 60 percent of your total system electrical cost will be consumed by the monitor itself.

Most CRT's have 3 "guns" (red, blue and green) each with a filament, similar to a regular light bulb. In other words, leaving your monitor (or TV) on 24/7 is like leaving 3 light bulbs turned on, 24/7. You can reduce the overall electrical consumption of your computer system by manually turning off the monitor or having Windows automatically shutdown the monitor during periods of non-useage (see Windows Help for details).

For example. a standard 17 inch CRT monitor utilizes about 100 watts of power when turned on but less than 8 watts, when turned off. (See your monitor specifications for complete details.)

If you normally leave your computer system on 24/7, you might think about turning it off completely, when you won't be using it again for several hours. This will reduce overall power consumption, as well as wear and tear on moving parts such as hard disk drives and fans.

Hope your enjoying your new "toy".

[meadish_sweetball]

If your system utilizes a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV type monitor, then 50 to 60 percent of your total system electrical cost will be consumed by the monitor itself. 

Most CRT's have 3 "guns" (red, blue and green) each with a filament, similar to a regular light bulb. In other words, leaving your monitor (or TV) on 24/7 is like leaving 3 light bulbs turned on, 24/7. You can reduce the overall electrical consumption of your computer system by manually turning off the monitor or having Windows automatically shutdown the monitor during periods of non-useage (see Windows Help for details).

For example. a standard 17 inch CRT monitor utilizes about 100 watts of power when turned on but less than 8 watts, when turned off. (See your monitor specifications for complete details.)

If you normally leave your computer system on 24/7, you might think about turning it off completely, when you won't be using it again for several hours. This will reduce overall power consumption, as well as wear and tear on moving parts such as hard disk drives and fans.

Hope your enjoying your new "toy".

What about LCD screens (Samsung 19" with external power cord) - more or less power than the CRTs?

[bkk_mike]

What about LCD screens (Samsung 19" with external power cord) - more or less power than the CRTs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Generally a fair bit less, although the saving seems to go down as screen size goes up. (i.e. The 3 guns in a CRT use not that much more power as you increase the size of the screen, but as you increase the size of an LCD, generally they add a second backlight.)

i.e. a 15" LCD will be 20-25W usually with only one backlight, but a 17"-19" LCD will generally be around 40W with a second backlight.

On the other hand, a 17" CRT will be around 70W, and a 19" CRT around 80W.

If you want to know the wattage of your monitor - just look it up in google...

[Crushdepth]

There's an interesting article on stand-by power consumption at PC Magazine today.

[Richard-BKK]

Hello Paulfr,

Hereby I send you a link of my last electric bill http://adsl.yoll.net/electric.html

And my computers are running 24/7 with 100% CPU power running Seti@home if I'm not home.

Maybe it is time to change your airco to some newer more energy saving model.

With kind regards,

Richard

[bkk_mike]

One other thing - the three hours your spending on the computer...

Are these hours where you've got the aircon (or even lights and fan) on where, in the past, you wouldn't have?

[Doctor John]

One other thing - the three hours your spending on the computer...

Are these hours where you've got the aircon (or even lights and fan) on where, in the past, you wouldn't have?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Detective Mike,

A very good question.

[Ijustwannateach]

Yeah, air-con's the real killer- that's the one that doubles MY electric if I use it every night!

"Steven"