Plasma TVs, Game Consoles Guzzle Electricity

RooK, be careful about blaming everyone for the cost increase. In some places, power is not generated by coil or oil but by hydro or wind so your argument doesn't hold. Anyway, use electricity = you pay and if you cannot afford the bill, reduce consumption but if you know what you are running and can afford the bill, nobody will tell what to do ;)

Around here, I pay under 7c/KWH and I did the math, the chart I read here doesn't make sense at all ;) 76$ per month to run a single computer ? ROFLCOPTER !!!! I run 5 overclocked quads and the increase is just 40$/ month for all 5 !

 
Bah, no edit...

In the winter, running equipment will generate heat, which will save you a lot of money from heating so it all even out anyway. I do understand that in the more tropical parts, it's a moot point but I live in the land of the moose and this is a important point for me.

 
Bah, I reread it and it's 10$ / month for a single computer and that's normal....

Anyway, look more to save oil since this is what really matter with the non-stop oil price increase.

 
Ahh, dogs are going to be shitting bees out of their mouths if you leave a ps3 on!

The phrasing of the article is a little extreme. When they suggest to turn devices off at the wall rather than with the power button the article makes it sound like you will be saving an increadible amount of energy. But by their own findings a PS3 while turned "off" with the power switch "on" uses 15.53 kWh of electricity a year. Or 2.23 AU$. Not really a big deal.
 
Steve said:
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:
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Yeah, the PS3 doing Folding@Home runs at roughly 215w. I only did it for a week but when I found out the power consumption and noticed how scorching hot the PS3 got while doing that, I stopped.

That said, it folds fast as hell and considering the number of units consumed per watt, it is probably still more efficient than folding on a PC.
 
Serpico said:
Yeah, the PS3 doing Folding@Home runs at roughly 215w. I only did it for a week but when I found out the power consumption and noticed how scorching hot the PS3 got while doing that, I stopped.

That said, it folds fast as hell and considering the number of units consumed per watt, it is probably still more efficient than folding on a PC.
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A dedicated quad folding box draw about 200w top (with the bare minimum, no display) and produce over 3000 ppd while a PS3 at 215W like you said produce just 900 ppd. There is hovewever a new 40 GB one which draw much less, about 130w while folding.

 
Xilikon said:
A dedicated quad folding box draw about 200w top (with the bare minimum, no display) and produce over 3000 ppd while a PS3 at 215W like you said produce just 900 ppd. There is hovewever a new 40 GB one which draw much less, about 130w while folding.

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You know, I hadn't taken quad folding into account. The last time I did any of that was late 2006. The PS3 was the king at the time but obviously CPUs have caught up since then.

Thanks for the info.
 
Steve said:
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:
Click to expand...

you can grow weed with that much electricity. careful, police have been known to raid houses based on high electricity usage alone. just pay your bills on time and keep your lanparty room from looking like a grow op and youll be fine;)
 
XamediX said:
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?
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A/C. because the energy first has to convert from electrical to mechanical then to chemical and another electrical fan blows. its just a salad of conversions and losses.

heaters, on the other hand, go from electrical to heat. nearly 100% efficient. im not sure what a regular house a/c efficiency is but it doesnt even compare. honestly, i think nowadays it might be about the same cost to heat your house with electric then it does with natural gas or propane... i really need to look into the details myself, its been awhile and energy costs have changed in the last couple years... greatly
 
krupted said:
honestly, i think nowadays it might be about the same cost to heat your house with electric then it does with natural gas or propane...
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Natural gas will be probably be cheaper, depending on the price per therm, ccm or MCF (whatever unit you're billed using) of course. Natural gas is about $1.20/ccf in my area.

See this calculator here: http://www.exeloncorp.com/peco/html/electric.htm

If I had a gas heater instead of electric, I would save about 50% on heating costs per year. It doesn't matter much in my case since the weather is mild and the 50% I'd save is maybe $30/year at most.
 
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:
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If you cure cancer in the next week, I will personally keep my PC off for a full 365 days in your honor.

Till then, I hope you never get it. As for your stem cell research ponderings, I think people who are against it are in favor of people dying needlessly. There is a downside to everything, and if you don't like it, don't bitch that nothing's gotten done.
 
Lucky you're not living in Tallahassee. We're on natural gas only -- no coal, hydrothermal, water, nuclear, or anything, paying an average of $300 a month for the last two years, and it was even $250 when we had only one TV in the house with only one computer. The water heater's only on three hours out of the day, the AC's new, the insulation's fine -- it's just damn expensive to move electrons under this city.
 
krupted said:
A/C. because the energy first has to convert from electrical to mechanical then to chemical and another electrical fan blows. its just a salad of conversions and losses.
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Thats a very vauge conclusion to draw, on ac vs baseboard.
Though ACs dont convert to chemical, they just compress, condense, boil.

krupted said:
heaters, on the other hand, go from electrical to heat. nearly 100% efficient. im not sure what a regular house a/c efficiency is but it doesnt even compare. honestly, i think nowadays it might be about the same cost to heat your house with electric then it does with natural gas or propane... i really need to look into the details myself, its been awhile and energy costs have changed in the last couple years... greatly
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http://www.rewci.com/poraircon.html
"14,000 BTU Portable air conditioner, rated for rooms up to 500 sq. ft. Uses 1250 watts/11 amps". 14,000BTU = 4102W, 3.28W of heat moved/pumped, for every 1W consumed by the electric motor. Far more efficent, which is one of the reasons why you might find a "heat pump" in use at homes or buisnesses rather than electric heat. Its just an AC system, but its pulling in "heat" from outside and putting it inside.

an 8k BTU window unit pulling 900W is enough to cool my 2 bedroom apartment down, and by enough I mean its more than enough to get it uncomfortably cold, when its 85-90F outside. 900W of heating power is about what my toaster does in the morning as I try to warm up a bagel.
 
Haha i love Canada's prices for power, i pay $0.05/kwh so for me to run my 100w server 24/7 it costs me $5 per month or $60 per year.
 
I've known for a long time that leaving fluorescent bulbs on is actually cheaper to run than turning them off/on all the time. Takes more power to turn them on than to just leave them on. But recently I read that is true for incandescent bulbs too, even though I did read that recently I'm not so sure it is true.
 
milkweg said:
I've known for a long time that leaving fluorescent bulbs on is actually cheaper to run than turning them off/on all the time. Takes more power to turn them on than to just leave them on. But recently I read that is true for incandescent bulbs too, even though I did read that recently I'm not so sure it is true.
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Yeah, striking the ballast for the fluorescent is what eats up power. Once it is past that initial striking then consumption settles down. I'm pretty sure the same doesn't apply to incandescent bulbs.
 
bob said:
Thats a very vauge conclusion to draw, on ac vs baseboard.
Though ACs dont convert to chemical, they just compress, condense, boil.



http://www.rewci.com/poraircon.html
"14,000 BTU Portable air conditioner, rated for rooms up to 500 sq. ft. Uses 1250 watts/11 amps". 14,000BTU = 4102W, 3.28W of heat moved/pumped, for every 1W consumed by the electric motor. Far more efficent, which is one of the reasons why you might find a "heat pump" in use at homes or buisnesses rather than electric heat. Its just an AC system, but its pulling in "heat" from outside and putting it inside.

an 8k BTU window unit pulling 900W is enough to cool my 2 bedroom apartment down, and by enough I mean its more than enough to get it uncomfortably cold, when its 85-90F outside. 900W of heating power is about what my toaster does in the morning as I try to warm up a bagel.
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That's correct... I just bought a new heat pump for my condo and the contractor told me that baseboard heaters have a efficiency of 1 (just to illustrate a example), 1000w consumed = 1000w of heat. A heat pump will consume about 1100w (for a 12,000btu unit) but will generate over 4000w of heat so it have a power efficiency of 4. It's much cheaper to run the heatpump compared to baseboard heaters and with the fan blowing, it heat the area much more efficienly than passive heat movement. Same for cooling, which you pay about 1000w of use for over 4x the power.

Here's a list of ways to save a lot of power :

-Buy Energy Star appliances and for those who aren't ES (like dryers or ranges), try to look at the power usage sheet and pick the ones with the lowest use.
-Use CFL bulbs whenever possible. If it's not possible (halogen or special socket), try to look for a lower wattage if there is a range of choices. look also for DEL bulbs made to fit halogen sockets (nice but currently too expensive at 20$/bulb).
-buy a 80plus power supply for your computer. The best brands is almost all 80plus already so it's a bonus.
-Use programming thermostats and adjust based on your life pattern (reduce temp in unused rooms at night and reduce temps of bedrooms during the day). This can save you as much as 30% of heating costs.
-Run the dishwasher or washer/dryer only if you have a full batch. Don't run partially.
-Use a LCD TV whenever possible instead of CRT or Plasma.
-Drop the water tank temp to 125C vs the default 140C and wrap it with insulating sheet to reduce heat loss.

And much more... My only big use is my folding farm running 24/7 but it's a personnal choice and I pay for it.


 
I've known for a long time that leaving fluorescent bulbs on is actually cheaper to run than turning them off/on all the time. Takes more power to turn them on than to just leave them on. But recently I read that is true for incandescent bulbs too, even though I did read that recently I'm not so sure it is true.
Click to expand...

Anybody who thinks that leaving lights on 24h a day is cheaper need to have their heads examined. If you measure how much power is actually used to turn on a ballast, then convert it into cost, remember we are charged by the hour not millisecond, it will cost much less than a penny to turn on your light. Leave 1kw worth of lights on for on hour you could be paying an average of 10 cents depending on your rates, that's over $800 a year.
You obviously missed the episode of Mythbusters were they actually proved that the turning on of lights used very small amounts of power and fluorescents were much more efficient then incandescents in that regard.
 
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