Allotments 4 All

1. How much does it use on standby?
2. Is that as much as TV does - on for hours!! Which I don't watch.
3. Or running the hot tap - because there's usually something in your right hand - without waiting for the hot water to come through??

What you have to remember at this time of year, is that any energy consumed, ends up as heat anyway, so the house is being warmed by any appliances that are operating... so the wastage only applies to periods when heating is not required eg the summer. The other factor to consider is whether the equipment remains reliable when it is switched on for use ... first of all there is the booting up time ... secondly most people forget that most equipment faults are introduced during switching on and off.

I prefer to leave my equipment switched on if it is being used daily ...

Derekthefox :D

Comforting!

But can I quote a wattage figure? I do only have it on standby for 12 hours a day, & I do switch the screen off.

Tim,
      What I do on Standby  is, leave the Tower ( Processor ) ON, but turn Monitor OFF, this must cut down om Power consumption

Me too - but She still thinks I'm wasteful!! I reckon that, in the winter, if I used the bathroom fan heater for 1 minute less each day, that would compensate for a day's use of the computer??

When I get up my PC goes on. I leave it on all day - unless I go out. The monitor is set to go off after 20 mins. (see below)

I am sure it takes more juice to boot up than it does leaving it on all day. I know some folk that don't even turn off when they go to bed. They leave it on 24x7. They just do a re-boot every couple of weeks to freshen up. :P

To set your monitor to go off after 20 mins:
Start>Settings>Control Panel> Display>Screen Saver tab>Power...>Turn Monitor off>drop down list>After 20 mins.
Leave the other two options as Never. And I have Power Scheme set as Home/Office Desk. ;)

well  i would say.......
A monitor in standby draws around 5 watts
The tower in standby around 35 to 50 watts

so in standby a max of 55 watts per hour ...

1 kw = 1000 watts ..    1000 divided by 55 =18.18
so in 18 hours it will use 1kw of power

In use the monitor around 120watts, PC around 250watts  = 370 watts divide by 1000watts=  2.72 hours
so ...
if on standby for 18 hours and in use for 6 hours it would be approx 4kw per day

Average cost per Kw= 10p  x 4 =40p a day or £2.80 a week ::) :-\

On boot up it may draw up to 400 watts but this would only be for a 2 minutes  max so watts would be 400/30=13.33 into 1000 = 75 bootups per KW
or 150 bootups per day to equal 18 hours on standby  ::)

I think ;)

Exonerated - brilliant!!

I prefer to leave my equipment switched on if it is being used daily ...

Derekthefox   



Sound advice so do I.
Vony.

Its the monitor that uses the most power, so switch it off when not sat at  the screen!! With regards to the tower, leave it on 24/7 if you like as the power used is minimal, similar to having a model train set waiting to start up, the power unit is like the transformer, it reduces the power load!!
The other saving grace is the fact that repeated powering up and down can also be of detriment to the pc as the constant contraction and expansion of the "gubbins" due to the heat factor can reduce the lifetime of parts and thus present you with a tidy bill!!
KevB (PC Workshop)

p.s. I thought consumption was an illness in the 1930's LOL
now its a computer virus, it must have mutated to survive!!

Good arithmetic Travman, I gleaned data from this site

http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/computer-power-consumption.html

the figures roughly concur ...

Derekthefox :D