Is your computer using over 380kw of power a month?

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inelegant

Weaksauce
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Oct 11, 2008
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To test how much power my system uses I timed the wall socket for 24 hours and it said I used 8.41 kilowatts with a average of about 450 watts usage. The energy company has placed 4 different baseline prices when the wattage has reached a max or something along those lines. My system uses 250 kilowatts a month and the first baseline is 380kw so I was telling my dad about that and he told me a single refrigerator and one light goes over that anyway. The first baseline price is a few cents a kilowatt and second and third are 15 and 17 cents more. His electric bill was $381 last month with a total of 1200 kilowatts at about 37 kilowatts per day.

Appliances in his home are a electric dishwasher, washer and dryer, convection oven, 2 refrigerators 20 & 25cu ft, 1 spa, 3 computers, 3 lcd tvs, and one 13 inch tv. No kind of central air.

My dad figured he would buy a watt meter to see how our house uses up energy and find ways to decrease his monthly bill or find out if live wires are pumping energy in to the ground outside. He has been looking in to buying a 32k solar panel that sells electric back and pays for itself within 7 years with the exception that it only lasts 25.
 
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Sorry to avoid your question altogether, but do you unplug appliances at night? I've seen my bill go down by a substantial amount when doing that, but I have central air, and its on all the time, so I need savings whereever I can get them.

Also, I think my computer is about 400kw~ a month.
 
I'm assuming you all mean killowatt-hours and not straight kilowatts.

My monthly bills are usually under $50 and I run the systems in my sig nearly 24/7.
 
What power profile you use in Vista/Win7 makes a dif too. By using power saving profile you can have your cpu run at way less speed except when it needs to run at full speed for games etc. If you leave your PC on 24/7 you should make sure it hibernates when not in use too. That mode uses very little power.

Another good tip for saving power: I see Walmart now sells LED light bulbs. I have bought 3 already. They cost more ($8.50 CAD each) but use only 1.5w for equivalent 40w output of a standard bulb. That's a massive difference and is what you should use for your light beside your computer. I put one in my stove light too because that light is on almost all the time.
 
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. There is a distinct difference between a kilowatt, and a kilowatt-hour. One is a measurement of power, the rate of energy consumption, and one is a measurement of energy. I'm assuming you mean KWh, but I want you to know that this sort of thing really annoys me.

Having said that, yes, it sort of does. I worked it out. 16 hours a day, I get 365KWh a month.
 
How many people do you guys know that can tell teh difference in a kw and a kwh? The meter does read kwh but for all I care it could be reading megawatts. I dont really care about how power is done in the states but we have to pay a extra 100 dollars a month so they can manipulate the power they provide us with in the future and it is totaly ridiculous.
 
How many people do you guys know that can tell teh difference in a kw and a kwh?
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Most of the people I know, and definitely almost all of the people I associate myself with.
 
inelegant said:
To test how much power my system uses I timed the wall socket for 24 hours and it said I used 8.41 kilowatts with a average of about 450 watts usage. The energy company has placed 4 different baseline prices when the wattage has reached a max or something along those lines. My system uses 250 kilowatts a month and the first baseline is 380kw so I was telling my dad about that and he told me a single refrigerator and one light goes over that anyway. The first baseline price is a few cents a kilowatt and second and third are 15 and 17 cents more. His electric bill was $381 last month with a total of 1200 kilowatts at about 37 kilowatts per day.

Appliances in his home are a electric dishwasher, washer and dryer, convection oven, 2 refrigerators 20 & 25cu ft, 1 spa, 3 computers, 3 lcd tvs, and one 13 inch tv. No kind of central air.

My dad figured he would buy a watt meter to see how our house uses up energy and find ways to decrease his monthly bill or find out if live wires are pumping energy in to the ground outside. He has been looking in to buying a 32k solar panel that sells electric back and pays for itself within 7 years with the exception that it only lasts 25.
Click to expand...

largest power consumer in the average American household:
fridge

you have two

next highest offenders in no particular order:
electric clothes dryers
lighting (unless you use CFLs or LEDs, in which case this can move down a bit)
electric oven or microwave (either can be horrible if used often)
space heaters


most everything else I'd consider "Acceptable" if its energy star tagged or otherwise efficient, some stuff you just gotta accept, some stuff is excessive and should be powered off when not in use (like those TVs)

37 kWh/day means you're using roughly 37,000 watt hours in a single day, or nearly 2000 watt hours per hour (so basically a 1000W output microwave running 24/7), I'd really suggest CFLs if you don't have them, but above that, turning some shit off




Mr. Pedantic said:
Most of the people I know, and definitely almost all of the people I associate myself with.
Click to expand...

same.
theres a dramatic difference, and I may not be as vocal as pedantic here, but I agree with his point nonetheless
 
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