On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:07:22 +0100, AD C <graphi47uk@y.a.h.o.o.co.uk>
wrote:

>In article <431d76c7$0$17950$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk>,
>abuse@dopiaza.cabal.org.uk says...
>
>>
>> OK, I'm not going to outright come and say "you're wrong", but can you
>> explain how you've come to this conclusion? Unless your electricity is
>> free or below cost, or your computer isn't a PC, or it's not running
>> 24/7, it seems unlikely.
>>
>> If you're just going by the size of your bill and guessing, you'd be
>> surprised. In my last house (I get "free" electricity in this one)
>> which had gas heating and cooking, approximately 70% of the
>> GBP80/quarter electricity bill was due to computers and associated
>> equipment.
>>
>
>A while back, I had a friend living here, so I had three computers on
>24/7, my computer, my friends computer and the server. at the time I was
>paying my eletric via a Pre-pay meter, so I knew how much I put in and
>that was about £5 a week, which is about £220 a year. she was here for
>two years, when she moved out, she took her computer and the server was
>switched off and was only put back into operation in the last few
>months.
>
>Now if each computer took £60 a year to run, how much would you think my
>electric bill would go down by, with two computers less? the fgirst
>year, my bill should have been about £120 less, going by what you are
>saying each computer takes. We had most meals together, so cooking was
>done at the same time, The only things that used more electric when she
>was here, was the washing machine and the shower. I know electric have
>gone up in the last 2 years, but not to that extent.

You have to take into account the fact that the display monitor can
consume much more power than all the rest of the computer equipment
put together. This was especially true for the older CRT type
monitors, less so for new LCD displays.

A computer running 24/7 doing nothing except operating as a server for
running Asterisk or something, but with the display turned off, would
consume less power than one being used every day for normal work.

Chris