PC Power usage and Energy Bill

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FoXtroT

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Hi Everyone

I recently moved into digs in Cape Town and brought my PC with me however ever since I have set it up and started using it, the houses power consumption seems to have shot through the roof. My digs mate had been living here for about a month before my arrival and he used about 150 units of electricity in a month (we have a prepaid meter). We bought about 220 units 2 days ago and we are already at 186 units. The only thing that seems to have changed is my use of my PC, which in all honesty I haven't been running constantly and have it go to sleep after 30 minutes.

My question is, should my PC be consuming that much energy? It just does not seem right and if it is, it will cost me an arm and a leg to keep running.

PC Specs:

Corsair CX600 PSU
GTX 660Ti
3,7GHz Core i5
8 Gb RAM
1 SSD
3 Hard Drives
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard
 
I doubt it's your pc. Seeing as there are now two of you things like the geyser, stove etc etc etc are also being used more.

To be sure you can get a inline power meter to check your pcs actual consumption.
 
Geyser, lights, cellphone chargers, fans, stove, PC, TV etc etc all start to add up.
Your PC will consume quite a bit with that PSU. 600W chews through electricity even when running for 10 minutes, and could very well be the major contributing factor. Try putting it on and checking the little blinking light go on steroids on the meter box, and you will see how much its using. It's also worth noting that fans can consume a significant amount also.

I'd suggest:
1) check the lights are energy savers.
2) pull out chargers when not in use
3) become a little more disciplined (if not already) when using lights/fans, and turn them off when not in the room.
4) switch the geyser on about 30 - 45 minutes before showering/bathing, and switch it off immediately afterward (or get a timer installed)
5) buy more electricity to cater for the 100% increase in occupants + (another) PC. You cant increase your purchase by 46% and have another person living there with a monster PSU on their PC.

Good luck :)
 
snowwolf said:
Your PC will consume quite a bit with that PSU. 600W chews through electricity even when running for 10 minutes, and could very well be the major contributing factor.
Click to expand...

Just because his PSU is rated at 600W does not mean that it is chowing 600W all the time when it is running, c'mon man.

OP, if you know someone with one of those cheap plugin efergy watt meter thingies, you will know exactly how much it is using, it will be nowhere near 600W I bet.

lol ponder, you beat me to it :p
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. We have been pretty good at putting off lights etc. but I suppose that just isn't enough when you have a 2nd person in the house. I'm definitely going to check the geyser and see if I can lower its temp, because after this discussion I am leaning towards it as the culprit.
 
FoXtroT said:
Thanks for the advice everyone. We have been pretty good at putting off lights etc. but I suppose that just isn't enough when you have a 2nd person in the house. I'm definitely going to check the geyser and see if I can lower its temp, because after this discussion I am leaning towards it as the culprit.
Click to expand...

I have read somewhere that you should not reduce the temp of your geyser below 55 deg C as bacteria will start to flourish in the tank.
 
I would suggest thinking of a unit as a kiloWatt-hour and then calculating the consumption of the key appliances.

600W PS would obviously equate to 0.6 units per hour and then the fans (if not fed from the motherboard). It is obviously not going flat out 100%, but a GPU and Motherboard together normally chow quite a baseload and you have to consider the input power, not the output. Different supplies also have different efficiencies (the more efficient one's normally announce the fact).

Then there is the monitor's power to add to that.

If you start with your calcs the hot water cyclinder (possibly 3kW, on for 45 mins or so after each shower and the regular topup cycles - so probably 5-6 units per day) and then the fridge, stove etc. You can get estimates for all these off the web.
 
At the prepaid meter monitor the usage with :-

a) the PC unplugged for an hour and then compare with
b) the PC on and you doing your normal stuff for an hour.

Not strictly accurate because you could have other devices cycling on an off but you should get a rough idea what units your PC consumes per hour.

I had 4 computers running 24/7 and my electricty was fairlyhigh for a single person. I realised that 3 of the computers I only used about an hour a day. So I kept them off until needed.

The result was a substantial power consumption saving.
 
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It's not your PC. Now there are more people bathing/showering so the geyser works twice as hard.
 
Okay I have a beefy PC and it runs day and night, and manage to use about 3 units a day.I have two 2500watt chippers and on a good day running from 5am till about 4pm uses 40 units, just giving an example. PC's hardly use any thing, boiling a kettle which takes about 0.4 units if it is half full will use more units than a PC during the day.
 
InusB said:
Try this app. (If you are using and android phone) Energy Meter
Not sure how accurate it is, but it may assist in some way.
Click to expand...

Don't have andriod but I found a similar app on the iStore and got a reading of 486W while using my PC for browsing, with the only other electrical appliance running being the fridge. Will check later with the PC off how much its using.

Edit: Measured with the PC off and it was reading 330W, so with the PC pretty much idling its using around 150-180W.
 
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FoXtroT said:
Don't have andriod but I found a similar app on the iStore and got a reading of 486W while using my PC for browsing, with the only other electrical appliance running being the fridge. Will check later with the PC off how much its using.
Click to expand...

What is the name of the iPhone app?
 
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