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 Posted: Thu, 8th Mar 2018 22:32 Post subject: Surprising power consumption: tip to all |
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This may be a "well duh" thing for some (or many) of you but I still thought it worth posting. I moved to a new house exactly a year ago and since then I've been keeping track of my electricity and heating bills to see whether I would end up paying more. (spoiler: I'm paying as much as I did back in my apartment, yay for isolation).
While doing this, I was curious to see where my power usage came from. I traded in my tiny fridge for a massive one at no rise in bills thanks to improved technology. I used a power meter and found out it costs all of €40 a year to power my fridge and €60 for my massive freezer. That left €1100 more to discover. I invested in LED lights with a high LPW (lumen per watt) rating but that only made a small dent.
So ... I turned to my PC. I leave it idling all day long, with the monitors and speakers turned off. I expected some 50-60W idle use but my power meter showed something very different. 180W idle. Crazy. I turn off my PC, speakers and monitors - the only thing still going is my router = 50W.
To make a long story short, I plugged in and out every single device, compared idle to use and got the following, rather surprising, numbers:
- my Z680 speakers use 10-15W when turned off - the only sign of "power" is the red power light on the console. When turned on power usage goes up to 35W when no sound is played. (full power usage depends on how high the volume and so on but that's normal - same with graphics cards and so on)
- my ASUS 4K 144Hz monitor (Asus PG278Q)... uses 12W when turned off, 45W when turned on. The 45W when turned on I get. The 12W when turned off? Not so much. Count 24 hours a day, 356 days a year and I'm paying €25 a year for their shitty idle mode. (0,25€ per kW).
- my Dell monitor used zero power when idle (or <1W anyway) - shows it's perfectly possible
- my ASUS Router uses 10W. Quite a lot for a router - checked it out and yes, this router, while very powerful, is among the worst in power consumption.
Basically, the conclusion here is: use a power brick with a switch to make sure everything is REALLY turned off. When everything is counted, I wasted €350 a year on an idle PC when an SSD makes it unnecessary to leave it on. €350!!! That's €30 a month!
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| Posted: Thu, 8th Mar 2018 22:44 Post subject: |
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well, pretty much as expected. but not the 180w for your pc. ofc its better to have as most stuff as possible on a switchable power connector and there are always a few black sheeps like your Z680
so back to your pc: either a cheap power meter, thats common for cheap stuff, they dont work properly when the psu has nothing to do -> means they show wrong values. or something in your pc doenst want to go into power safe mode (cpu or gpu), maybe its even the psu itself causing too much power draw on idle
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| Posted: Thu, 8th Mar 2018 23:04 Post subject: |
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LPT: get a power strip with an adjustable master switch where you plug in the PC. PC off = everything off, but you just need to hit the power button to switch on your whole setup.
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| Posted: Thu, 8th Mar 2018 23:13 Post subject: |
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power consumption of hard drives doenst matter, atleast not in that amount. in the worst case its ~10w in actual usage for 3,5" hard drives and ~5-6 while spinning in idle. so even if all spin up its 60w usage for a small moment, falls down instantly to the half. sure it adds up, but its not the reason for 180w power consumption in idle. have you checked cpu and gpu clock speed? correctly powering down into the lowest power state? if yes either your psu is cheap china shit (i.e. 30 bucks for a "700w" psu) or its faulty or just aged hard so that it needs higher power draw to deliver what is needed (which should be waaaaaaaaaaaay below 100w in idle)
but yes ofc if you dont need your pc you dont have to run it in idle all the time and waste money. mine was running 27/4 for years, changed that behavior long ago. if i download bigger stuff my nas is doing the job if im at work or out of the house and if i watching series in the evening i send a shutdown command to power off after 2 hours if i fall asleep
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| Posted: Thu, 8th Mar 2018 23:32 Post subject: |
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Nah, it's an expensive 650W modular Corsair PSU so far from cheap crap. 180W includes the 50W other stuff, though so it's really 130W.
Bushwacka: I didn't know that existed. Very good tip - I may well get one of those for my TV and my PC.
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| Posted: Fri, 9th Mar 2018 02:35 Post subject: |
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now imagine how many euros companies waste on eletectricy cause twat employees dont even bother pushing the power buttons on their monitors
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Morphineus
VIP Member
Posts: 24883
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat, 10th Mar 2018 22:52 Post subject: |
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| red_avatar wrote: | | PickupArtist wrote: | | now imagine how many euros companies waste on eletectricy cause twat employees dont even bother pushing the power buttons on their monitors |
Once you take into account how much power costs and how much it sometimes saves to replace something by a more recent model ... you could make a job out of it. Go to people's houses, find ways to save them money and get 30% of the savings and you'll make a fortune.  |
Kringwinkel has a team like that btw. They come and measure electricity, insulation efficiency and then give you a plan how to reduce power consumption and save money. Forgot what they were called, only had a few interactions with them when they had data on the homes we did a roof insulation job on. |
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| Posted: Sun, 11th Mar 2018 00:18 Post subject: |
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that's why You use balanced power plan in windows, so it steps down cpu when idling
3080 | ps5 pro
Sin317-"im 31 years old and still surprised at how much shit comes out of my ass actually ..."
SteamDRM-"Call of Duty is the symbol of the true perfection in every aspect. Call of Duty games are like Mozart's/Beethoven's symphonies"
deadpoetic-"are you new to the cyberspace?"
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| Posted: Sun, 11th Mar 2018 00:20 Post subject: |
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Well basically, I don't think leaving PC running is a good thing.
You can DL superfast, if you need the PC its gonna boot in no time etc....
I always turn it off.
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| Posted: Tue, 13th Mar 2018 14:25 Post subject: |
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my PC hasn't been off in 15 years, unless there is a power outage
| Lutzifer wrote: | | and yes, mine is only average |
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| Posted: Tue, 13th Mar 2018 15:37 Post subject: |
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| Janz wrote: | | which basicly occurs every two days in the balkans doenst it? |
more or less 
what kind of back-going third world country do you live in, that still uses grid-synced clocks
nobody uses those here, as the electicity is never exactly 220V 50Hz anyway 
| Lutzifer wrote: | | and yes, mine is only average |
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tonizito
VIP Member
Posts: 51395
Location: Portugal, the shithole of Europe.
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| Posted: Mon, 19th Mar 2018 01:48 Post subject: |
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| slal wrote: | Got a question. Maybe a little offtopic...
I'm currently using Corsair 550W PSU - it's almost ten years old, but very solid and loud .
Will I save some monies on electric bills by getting a new one with 80plus gold certificate (e.g. seasonic focus plus gold 550)? |
Yes, get a new one
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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| Posted: Mon, 19th Mar 2018 05:37 Post subject: |
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just ordered a new one too (and a new case) cause mine is celebrating its 9th anniversary next month (keeping it as backup unit though)
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| Posted: Fri, 27th Apr 2018 13:20 Post subject: |
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| KillerCrocker wrote: | | that's why You use balanced power plan in windows, so it steps down cpu when idling |
If you use high performance it'll also power down your CPU (if it supports it through hw, which almost all do). But yes, I've been turning PCs off when I don't use them (and always turn monitors off even for 5 minutes) for a long time now, saves a ton of power, especially with the larger monitors.
PC: Yes. Console: No.
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Stige
Posts: 3544
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Fri, 27th Apr 2018 18:43 Post subject: |
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| Ampee wrote: | Well basically, I don't think leaving PC running is a good thing.
You can DL superfast, if you need the PC its gonna boot in no time etc....
I always turn it off. |
Yup, no reason to leave it running since leaving stone age internet.
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| Posted: Sat, 28th Apr 2018 18:47 Post subject: |
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stige, the money u burned with ur lazywastefull ass could have send u on holiday for two weeks in a 4 star all compted buffet hotel ... thats why u turn it off
no reasons to leave it on , heck im even pissed at game developers whose ingame menus use 100% cpu and gpu for no fucking reasons ... wastefull cunts
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Stige
Posts: 3544
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Sat, 28th Apr 2018 21:29 Post subject: |
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| PickupArtist wrote: | stige, the money u burned with ur lazywastefull ass could have send u on holiday for two weeks in a 4 star all compted buffet hotel ... thats why u turn it off
no reasons to leave it on , heck im even pissed at game developers whose ingame menus use 100% cpu and gpu for no fucking reasons ... wastefull cunts |
Yeah in what time? 10 years? Who cares. The savings are pennies really if your cpu/gpu drops to idle, mine only does like 140w at idle.
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my parents spend 400 euro a month on power 
