The Cost of Leaving Your PC On

by Marco Chiappetta — Saturday, February 17, 2007, 02:30 PM EDT

Have you ever wondered exactly how much it's costing you to leave your PC on? In the not too distant past, home users didn't think much about power consumption, but as the power requirements of modern PC hardware have skyrocketed, so too has interest in efficiency and cost. This short piece at Coding Horror explains how to calculate the cost of leaving a PC on and also gives some suggestion son how to save a few bucks.

"The first thing you need to know is how much power your computer draws. The best way is to measure the actual power consumption. You'll need a $30 device like the Kill-a-Watt or Seasonic PowerAngel to do this accurately. Once you get one, you'll inevitably go through a phase where you run around your home, measuring the power draw of everything you can plug into a wall socket. For example, I learned this weekend that our 42" plasma television draws between 90 watts (totally black screen) and 270 watts (totally white screen). Based on a little ad-hoc channel surfing with an eye on the Kill-a-Watt's LCD display, the average appears to be around 150 watts for a typical television show or movie."

Be sure to check out the comments at the end of the article, and don't get too bent out of shape with the author recommends using a low-end video card. He's a coder. Just chill. Take a deep breath.

Tags: PC, Cost, AVI, AV, OS, EA

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com