How would a computer with a 500w powersupply affect your electricity bill?

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sniper991122

Supreme [H]ardness
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okay, so I'm about to move into an apartment with 3 other friends and one of them brought up the point that we can't have the computers running all the time (there would be 4 of course) because it will run up the power bill...

but how much does it really cost to have a computer with a 400-500 watt power supply running 24/7 or for the entire month?
 
This may or may not have occurred to you, but the wattage of the psu only tells you how much power it CAN supply, not how much it supplies all the time. If it actually put out 500W constantly, it would be dead pretty damn soon.

Computers actually use very little power when they aren't doing anything. I'd say around 50W or less, unless maybe you have a power hungry preshott. So unless the 4 of you are LAN gaming with 6800U's and big time amd64's or prescotts, I doubt you should have a problem.

I know at my house there are often at least 2 computers on at once, along with many many other things and the power bill really isn't so much.
 
if i leave 3 comps on all the time at home i've got a power draw of about $70 dollars a month, maybe 40 of that is for teh computers.
 
ehZn said:
This may or may not have occurred to you, but the wattage of the psu only tells you how much power it CAN supply, not how much it supplies all the time. If it actually put out 500W constantly, it would be dead pretty damn soon.

Computers actually use very little power when they aren't doing anything. I'd say around 50W or less, unless maybe you have a power hungry preshott. So unless the 4 of you are LAN gaming with 6800U's and big time amd64's or prescotts, I doubt you should have a problem.

I know at my house there are often at least 2 computers on at once, along with many many other things and the power bill really isn't so much.
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heh actually 2 of the computers will be running x800 xt's, one on amd64 the other on some p4 chip (not sure which) and the other 2 aren't far off, 9800 pro p4 chips so... thats why the question was brought up.. (all to be networked and used for online/lan gaming)
 
sniper991122 said:
heh actually 2 of the computers will be running x800 xt's, one on amd64 the other on some p4 chip (not sure which) and the other 2 aren't far off, 9800 pro p4 chips so... thats why the question was brought up.. (all to be networked and used for online/lan gaming)
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hahaha the uber-l337 gaming squad apartment...I hope you all use headphones or your neighbors will kill you.

I would say try it for a month and just see how much the power bill is. Also remember you are splitting it 4 ways. And, even if the power bill is high, do you really think that will reduce your gaming habits on all that sweet hardware? I doubt it ;)
 
This is just simple problem solving, isn't it, sniper?

If something is on, it takes electricity. The guys here are right; a 500 watt power supply might not use 500 watts. Let's assume that it does, though, as that will help us get a worst-case estimate.

If you leave the box on for 24 hours, that's 12,000 watt-hours, or 12 kilowatt-hours. Times 24 days, and you have 288 kilowatthours.

Now, you have to go find your electric bill and figure out what you're paying for each kilowatthour you use. For me, that number is 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. If I do the math, I find that I would pay $20.74 per month, plus any taxes, minus any rebates.

Some electric companies charge a different rate based on the time of day the energy is used. It's a little more math, but it's still easy to figure out.

Don't forget to add up the amount of power your monitor is using, too. And also multiply by the number of machines that you've got, or do the exercise for each machine seperately and sum-up the results.

.B ekiM
 
mikeblas said:
This is just simple problem solving, isn't it, sniper?

If something is on, it takes electricity. The guys here are right; a 500 watt power supply might not use 500 watts. Let's assume that it does, though, as that will help us get a worst-case estimate.

If you leave the box on for 24 hours, that's 12,000 watt-hours, or 12 kilowatt-hours. Times 24 days, and you have 288 kilowatthours.

Now, you have to go find your electric bill and figure out what you're paying for each kilowatthour you use. For me, that number is 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. If I do the math, I find that I would pay $20.74 per month, plus any taxes, minus any rebates.

Some electric companies charge a different rate based on the time of day the energy is used. It's a little more math, but it's still easy to figure out.

Don't forget to add up the amount of power your monitor is using, too. And also multiply by the number of machines that you've got, or do the exercise for each machine seperately and sum-up the results.

.B ekiM
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Problem pwned.

Or you could just be sneaky and put your friends comps on standby when they aren't there ;)
 
I can't imagine why I multiplied by 24 days.

Fixing the math:

If you leave the box on for 24 hours, that's 12,000 watt-hours, or 12 kilowatt-hours. Times 30 days, and you have 360 kilowatt-hours.

At 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, that's $25.92.

.B ekiM
 
EnerMwatts.jpg


for comparative purposes

--------[ AIDA32 (c) 1995-2004 Tamas Miklos ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 900 MHz (4.5 x 200)
Motherboard Name ECS K7SEM (2 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR, 1 CNR, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 730S
System Memory 256 MB (SDRAM)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Monitor Eizo Nanao F930 (61159110)
Monitor ViewSonic G220fb (42K040800419)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter SiS 7018 Audio Accelerator

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Lexar JumpShot® USB Device
Disk Drive ST340016A (40 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive WDC WD400BB-00CAA0
Optical Drive TDK CDRW321040B (32x/10x/40x CD-RW)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network:
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.254.2)

on an old 400 watt Enermax
(this is my current browser box, someone threw it out in the garbage with a dead monitor :p )

the load is for the computer only monitors are seperate
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Id throw the workstation on it to give you a better idea (sig) but its being "fitted" for a new suite :p

Dust2.2.jpg
cable.jpg

wiring harness hell, sleeving, shortening and routing in progress
 
I have a 520W PSU and the only effect I got was more stability, better overclock, and a cooler running system.








*The wattage of your PSU makes no difference, the bigger the better. The amount of power your computer uses is solely dependent on what components are in your computer and if they are overclocked or not.
 
You all could get LCD's then there will be energy savings there. Not only from the LCD's, but from the AC cost...
 
darktiger said:
You all could get LCD's then there will be energy savings there. Not only from the LCD's, but from the AC cost...
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Yup, check out this quote from Viewsonic:

The power required to run an LCD is about one-third of that required for a CRT with the same screen area. In addition, the amount of heat generated by an LCD monitor is considerably less than a CRT monitor, resulting in a lower load on air conditioning. Building cooling needs may be decreased by up to 20%.
 
LCD's use a lot less than 1/3rd the power of a large CRT imo... my lcd's use 1 amp @ 12vdc... thats not much power at all... hell if i wanted to i could power my LCD's from my pc's powersupply lol
 
FLECOM said:
my lcd's use 1 amp @ 12vdc... thats not much power at all...
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Certainly, an LCD panel uses a lot less power than a comparable CRT.

It's easy to understate the difference. The input of your LCD might draw 1 amp at 12 volts (for 12 watts), but you're powering that from the brick or wall-wart that came with your display. That power supply isn't nearly 100% efficient, and might be drawing more than twice the power it puts out.

.B ekiM
 
still even if its that innefficient, 24 watts is nothing compared to say my 21" sony flat CRT that i use as a tv lol
 
find a power supply with a high efficiency percentage.many are only about 65% efficient, so even if you computer only uses 50watts, your PSU will need about 28 extra watts from the wall to convert the power to DC and output 50watts of DC power to the PC.

depending on the PSU, and your computers,you could be adding large percentages of consumption with cheap,inefficient power supplies. be sure to watch for that when buying.
 
You're not going to get much higher than 75%, however, so in the scheme of things 10% isn't really that big of a deal. I'd be more concerned about turning off the monitor when not around
 
10% will add up pretty quickly if its x3 computers, all with a high wattage usage(for their league, not in general), and on 24/7 :)
 
Vertigo Acid said:
You're not going to get much higher than 75%,
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currently
there are super efficient switching power supplies out there
just not for PC yet
http://www.powersupplies.net/State-of-the-Art/state-of-the-art.htm
91, 92 even 93%

Seasonic Super Series Revisited @ silentPCreview
"Efficiency: It is significantly higher than the original Tornado. The min and max numbers are 78% and 82% with this new one; the old one ranged 75.5% to 77%. The Rev.03 efficiency is tops, on par with that of the Enermax Noisetaker 475."
 
all the computers have lcd screens, so that is saving power.. but now im taking into consideration other things.. lol

yes it will be the perfect gaming apartment, a modded xbox and ps2, plus a gamecube downstairs with surround sound and in the master bedroom (mine and my friends) surround sound, and all 3 consoles (unmodded)...

thinking of all the other things that will take up power...

any idea what an average power bill would be? for something like this?
 
sniper991122 said:
all the computers have lcd screens, so that is saving power.. but now im taking into consideration other things.. lol

yes it will be the perfect gaming apartment, a modded xbox and ps2, plus a gamecube downstairs with surround sound and in the master bedroom (mine and my friends) surround sound, and all 3 consoles (unmodded)...

thinking of all the other things that will take up power...

any idea what an average power bill would be? for something like this?
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Depending on how antisocial you guys are, it could be anywhere between an arm, a leg, and your 1st born!

You should ask the power company if you can get like frequent power user miles or something.
 
the upside is ... during winter ... you'll save a bundle in heating bills
 
ehZn said:
Depending on how antisocial you guys are, it could be anywhere between an arm, a leg, and your 1st born!

You should ask the power company if you can get like frequent power user miles or something.
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actually very social, but between college and work we wont be spending a ton of time on there, just on the weekend and stuff... thats why my main question was just how much power the computers would take up...

seing how it cant take up more than $30 a computer at maximum wattage im not too worried...
 
Although my gf disagrees, I consider playing cs online a social event. :D Especially if I'm playing with friends in the same house.
 
one thing you will want to remeber is the fact that, 2 run 4/5 computers all the time, You need the AC running at 75 below ALL THE TIME, and if your in a place like me (texas) it can get pretty damn hot in the summer, on the 3rd floor apartment. SO the only pc of mine that stays on is the File server.

the AC factor is going to be the biggest thing to look in to.
 
ClayDo said:
the AC factor is going to be the biggest thing to look in to.
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and of course
the Human Body generates more bioelectricy than a 120V battery and over 25,000 btus of body heat
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:p

actually >
Power of Various Human Activities > sitting with attention focused > 210watts

http://hypertextbook.com/physics/mechanics/power/
practice
1 A typical adult in the United States consumes something like 2000 dietetic calories of food per day. Determine the average power generated by such an adult (assuming he or she is not gaining or losing weight).

We have to assume here that all the food energy consumed goes into work on some level (mechanical or metabolic). This is true only so long as the person is not gaining or losing weight, which occurs when the energy consumed is greater than or less than the work done. Start the problem by converting the units -- convert the energy from calories to joules and convert the time from days to seconds.
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With something between 700 and 800 watts in a horsepower, this corresponds to a rate of energy conversion somewhere between one-seventh and one-eighth of a horsepower.

2 Determine the cost of operating a 7000 Btu, room-sized air conditioner in New York City for the duration of the summer. Assume that electricity costs 14¢ per kilowatt·hour and that the air conditioner will run about 10 hours a day for 80 days. Solution ...

In the United States, the Btu is often confused with the Btu per hour (Btu/h). This is partially the fault of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning industries (HVAC). The rate at which energy is transformed from one form to another or transferred from one place to another is called power. Power is stated in units of energy divided by time. Furnaces and air conditioners are rated according to their heating and cooling power; that is, how quickly they can add or subtract heat from a room or home. American appliance manufacturers often quote the power of their devices in "Btu" when they really mean "Btu/h". Most certainly, this is just a form of shorthand and does not reveal any malicious intent on the part of the industry. However ...

Electric energy is sold by the kilowatt·hour while air conditioners are rated in Btu/h. This makes it extremely difficult to estimate the operating costs of these energy hungry appliances. For example, a 7000 Btu/h room air conditioner consumes energy at a rate of about ...
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while electricity in the New York City metropolitan area averages about 14 ¢ per kilowatt·hour. Thus, every ten hours of use costs ...
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Given that summer days in NYC range from semitropical to subtropical to absolutely tropical, it's quite reasonable to assume 80 days of air conditioner use in a typical season. This brings the cost of cooling one room to ...
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This cost may or may not be acceptable to an individual consumer for this particular use. That isn't the point. The point is that rating an air conditioner in a nonstandard unit adds one more step to the problem. Appliances should be rated in watts or kilowatts so that consumers would be able to make mental estimates of their operating costs more easily.
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of course what the actual cost is...
 
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