Plasma TVs, Game Consoles Guzzle Electricity

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Being a tech guy with several PCs and lots of hi-tech gadgets, I’ve never known what it is like to get an electricity bill under $250 a month. Apparently it is all those TVs and game consoles. The kicker is that my PS3 is on 24/7 running Folding@Home, imagine how I felt when I read this:

"Our tests found that leaving a Playstation 3 on while not in use would cost almost... five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period," said the study which was published on Choice's website www.choice.com.au.
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I am the electric nazi in my house. I switched all my light bulbs to CFL and make sure everything is off before I go to sleep and before I leave the house. I used to run my pc 24/7, until I figured it was costing me substantial money per month.
 
ya but all of it pales in comparison to your A/C... which if you live in miami is always going to be your big energy user...

i dont think a PS3 uses as much current as a large fridge with normal use in any given period of time unless the PS3 draws like 300 watts
 
Holy crud you pay a lot. We pay only ~$100/quarter.

As for the ps3, that shouldn't be a surprise at all. ;)
 
Kurik said:
I am the electric nazi in my house. I switched all my light bulbs to CFL and make sure everything is off before I go to sleep and before I leave the house. I used to run my pc 24/7, until I figured it was costing me substantial money per month.
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Same here, I'm trying to save wherever I can. Turn stuff off when it's not being used. I set the wife's PC to sleep, because she leaves everything in the house on. Used to turn my PC off all the time, but I just now got my Vista64 box to sleep and actually wake up again, so I've started doing that.
 
I pay about $40/month ($80 every other month) for electricity and I don't split the bill with anyone. :cool:
 
I too am an electric Nazi, but i like to leave my pc on so i can jump on it every now and again and not have to wait for it to power up - and im of the thought that its probably better to leave it running than turn it off and on all the time - and its just one pc that isnt running full load 100% of the time.

(which did you know that most new refrigerators run all the time as the turning on and off is harder on them and uses more electricity?!?)
 
exactly the reason why I stopped running distributed computing apps - horrible waste of resources, not to mention a higher electric bill - the additional heat from the computer which has to also be removed by the A/C. no thanks
 
Jeez Steve +250 is hard to swallow! I could see how a PS3 eats up power quick - it makes a great heater in the winter for sure!
 
Call me narrow minded - but I've been used to turning off lights, closing doors to keep in heat, never using standby on TV's and powering down PC's and routers since the 3 day week in the 70's in the UK (as and when the technology came out).
Just a habit I've always had from my parents telling me to save electric and gas (and money).

Shame I drive a v12 Daimler which drinks about 8-12 mpg at £1.15 a litre (is that $8.50 per U.S. Gallon ? My head hurtz :confused: )
Must be the energy repression after all these decades
 
I have become an electric Nazi at home. Every light bulb in the house except for 3 under the kitchen cabinets are CFL. The ones under the cabinets will eventually get replaced with LED lighting as will the CFLs in the house.

I have even been trying to find out how big of a wind turbine I would need to run something like the AC unit.
 
Whats with all these sub $100 bills! lol, ours is around $300 as well and we are very concious about trying to turn stuff off and switch to better power save type stuff.

We have 3 Refridgerators and 1 Large Freezer though, some of which are a bit older and suck the juice. Plus in our kitchen we have halogen spots that are not the most energy efficient, but as of now we have not found CFLs that work well there.
 
I run most of my electronics 24/7. Some of them are servers that run my e-mail and whatnot, so I don't want to turn them off anyhow. Sure they generate a lot of heat, but I have a few animals that require 80-85 degree temperatures, so it all works out. Sure it waste electricity, but that is why I get a bill every month. Heck, maybe if we start replacing our coal and gas power plants with nuclear the energy costs and impact of energy usage will decline.

For reference my electric bill is ~$150 a month in a 974 sq/ft apartment.
 
Kurik said:
I am the electric nazi in my house. I switched all my light bulbs to CFL and make sure everything is off before I go to sleep and before I leave the house. I used to run my pc 24/7, until I figured it was costing me substantial money per month.
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Since I finally own a home, I did the same exact thing you did, went all CFLs, All pcs are either OFF or in Sleep more unless being used (even my main machine).
We started save 40+ dollars a month. Before doing this, our bill was $130 some a month.
 
steve.. how the hell do you spend that? I spend $40 with two fridges, a large lcd tv, xbox 360, computers, etc. I don't leave anything running when it's not in use (other than the fridge..) Is your furnace electric?!
 
I make sure to turn the A/C full blast before I leave for work. I also run the washing machine and dryers at peak hours. I have also stockpiled the old lightbulbs so I can use those long after everyone is on energy efficient bulbs.

PS I don't recycle either.
 
I have all electric everything in my apartment which is about 1k sqft. Just me and my son here and my bill averages about $80/month. That's with around 7 computers running 24/7, 24" LCD and 2 17" CRTs on when I'm at the computers, another 17" CRT when my son is using his and I won't go near the horrible light which is CCFLs. Yep, that's actually a pretty low bill, Yay for cheap electric.

This is without any consoles or TVs. I actually have two TVs in the apartment but one hasn't been used in more than a year and the other has hardly been used in the last year.

Screw turning everything off is all I can say. Sure, it's 85F in my living room with the a/c on because of all the computers in here, but I can live with it. It's a nice 70-75 in the bedrooms and bathrooms, though, so it all evens out. Once I get off my lazy ass and find the power cord to one of my switches or hub, I'll end up moving at least a couple computers into my bedroom as well as my son's computer into his room to spread out the heat a bit. I might not have to run the a/c as much then.

 
Oh4Sh0 said:
steve.. how the hell do you spend that? I spend $40 with two fridges, a large lcd tv, xbox 360, computers, etc. I don't leave anything running when it's not in use (other than the fridge..) Is your furnace electric?!
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I blew steve out of the water, until I realized that my file servers were the culprit... switched them off and now im at about 150 a month.
 
Generally my bill is sub $70, though I am sure that is soon to change as the temperture is heading north of 80.
 
Chombo said:
I make sure to turn the A/C full blast before I leave for work. I also run the washing machine and dryers at peak hours. I have also stockpiled the old lightbulbs so I can use those long after everyone is on energy efficient bulbs.

PS I don't recycle either.
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You forgot to mention that you kick puppies, swerve to hit cats in the street, and water your grass in the afternoon. :rolleyes:
 
Is the chart linked the US dollar or the Australian dollar, not much of a difference but still should be pointed out since the article originates from Australia. The charts would be skewed a little to be slightly higher than what would occur in the US. Also does the fact that Australia uses 240v affect the results more than if this test was conducted in the US?
 
$52 per month baby, and that was with nothing replaced in my house with CFLs. With CFLs it is now $39.
 
I have an 1800 sq foot home with a heat pump.
4 PC's running 24/7.
Satellite radio with tuner/amp running all day for the dogs.
And a refrigerator and TV on at night.

My last bill was $24 but it is usually between $60 and $90 a month.
 
Hell, I live in south Texas, it's HOT most of the year, and during the hot months I turn off all 3 pc's during the day when we are out at work. My electricity bill with all of them on was ~350-400 per month, after turning them all off in the morning, I saw a $75 drop in my bill. So sorry all you [H] folding guys, I had to stop running that during the day to save cash :p
 
I'm not really trying to save or waste power.

At night and when I'm at work, nothing but my 12 year old refrigerator is on (apparently it's pretty energy efficient). My main PC is in sleep mode (6.5W, I measured it), and around a dozen small devices and computers are plugged in using at least standby power. When I leave a system on for remote access or a long download, it's usually my sub-50W backup server.

When I'm at home or running errands, my main computer is left on. I watch an hour or two of big screen LCD TV a day and movies from my HTPC (being replaced now) or player pretty often.
 
Does AC use more energy than electric baseboard heaters? Like in general, which is worse, or is it close enough where it REALLY depends on what type of AC and baseboard heater?
 
Ok... enough with the folding at home - you people running it are causing electric prices to go up

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!

Ok... That wasn't meant as a troll, but simply a very logical suggestion.

Now to get serious. I have a kila-watt electricity monitor between my entertainment center which consists of (and i'll give you a brief estimate where I can of power used)

47" LCD TV - ~230-300 watts
logitech z-5500's - unknown
nintendo wii - 30 watts
playstaton 2 slim - unknown
generic DVD player - 30 watts


Now... if I run all at once, I can top 350 watts easy.

The TV is the hog of course...

I once had this monitor hooked up to my PC... that sucker eats about 300 watts as well just idle and if playing a game, spikes up to around 350. core2 duo, 8800 GTX etc...

So... In other words... If you have complained about high electricity prices, and you run multiple computers and don't turn them off at night just to run folding, i'm personally holding you accountable for the increase in oil, natural gas, and coal prices.

Thank you not very much. :mad:
 
I'm about ~$80 without A/C

But I have 7 computer with FAH (5 in the basement) and a big screen and a bunch of other toys... Dunno what to tell ya :p

 
Shoot no edit:

RooK said:
Ok... enough with the folding at home - you people running it are causing electric prices to go up

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!
Click to expand...

I'd rather have a higher electric bill than die of cancer

 
RooK said:
So... In other words... If you have complained about high electricity prices, and you run multiple computers and don't turn them off at night just to run folding, i'm personally holding you accountable for the increase in oil, natural gas, and coal prices.

Thank you not very much. :mad:
Click to expand...

Not only am I leaving my computer on, but I am going to overclock it just a bit more.
 
RooK said:
So... In other words... If you have complained about high electricity prices, and you run multiple computers and don't turn them off at night just to run folding, i'm personally holding you accountable for the increase in oil, natural gas, and coal prices.
Click to expand...
Waffles @ deregulated power gouging.

<3 my municipal power company which has enough surplus capacity to sell to suckers on the energy market.
 
RooK said:
Ok... enough with the folding at home - you people running it are causing electric prices to go up

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!


So... In other words... If you have complained about high electricity prices, and you run multiple computers and don't turn them off at night just to run folding, i'm personally holding you accountable for the increase in oil, natural gas, and coal prices.

Thank you not very much. :mad:
Click to expand...

If you are willing to pay the price, then you are allowed to eat as much energy as you want. If you dont like it, kindly move to China. Folding at home is for a good cause.
I'm going to leave all the lights on in my house in your honor.
 
I can't help but wonder how many of you oppose stem cell research...
 
out of curiosity all of you with like $25-$80 electric bills, what are your rates?

Here in CT we pay 11.780 ¢/kWh. for generation, plus 4.9 ¢/kWh in "delivery charges" plus a flat $15 distribution customer service charge.

So basically we are paying 16.680 ¢/kWh for our power.
 
Loki008 said:
out of curiosity all of you with like $25-$80 electric bills, what are your rates?

Here in CT we pay 11.780 ¢/kWh. for generation, plus 4.9 ¢/kWh in "delivery charges" plus a flat $15 distribution customer service charge.

So basically we are paying 16.680 ¢/kWh for our power.
Click to expand...

yeh I am in CT and my bill hovers around 400 a month
 
According to my kill-a-watt my TV(37" Samsung 3rd gen 2008 HDTV) + PS3 + Wii consume 7w when all 3 are in sleep/suspend mode, with all 3 on they consume 680w, the TV alone consumes 250w.

I just got my new power bill, it went up $15 a month with the new TV+PS3+Wii, I only watch/play for 2-4 hours a day on non-gym days and 0-2 on gym days.

The first month I moved in I ran the AC maybe 5 days the whole month and my bill was $38, the second month I had the AC on set at 72f 24/7 and my bill went up to $61, for the 3rd month with new TV and stuff it went up to $76.

If anything the HVAC system for my apartment is the worst offender for power consumption.

All of the lights in my apartment are brand new GE 7w compact florescent "day light" bulbs, I never leave lights on in rooms I am not in and I rarely turn on the lights during the day(mainly because I am at work/gym).
 
RooK said:
Ok... enough with the folding at home - you people running it are causing electric prices to go up

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!

Ok... That wasn't meant as a troll, but simply a very logical suggestion.

Now to get serious. I have a kila-watt electricity monitor between my entertainment center which consists of (and i'll give you a brief estimate where I can of power used)

47" LCD TV - ~230-300 watts
logitech z-5500's - unknown
nintendo wii - 30 watts
playstaton 2 slim - unknown
generic DVD player - 30 watts


Now... if I run all at once, I can top 350 watts easy.

The TV is the hog of course...

I once had this monitor hooked up to my PC... that sucker eats about 300 watts as well just idle and if playing a game, spikes up to around 350. core2 duo, 8800 GTX etc...

So... In other words... If you have complained about high electricity prices, and you run multiple computers and don't turn them off at night just to run folding, i'm personally holding you accountable for the increase in oil, natural gas, and coal prices.

Thank you not very much. :mad:
Click to expand...

Time to go turn on the empty microwave for 5 minutes.;)
 
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