Saving money on electricity

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Ok, back on topic and another data point. Laptop computer, HP 1.6GHz pentium 4, half gig of ram. Uses 40 watts when turned off and charging a dead battery, between 2 and 4 when in standby mode with the lid shut and the screen off, and about 30 when running lightweight apps (browser and email). I didnt measure it running while charging a battery, but the transformer is 75 watts and the battery charge is 40 while the run wattage is 30...sounds like simple math to me?

Compared to the desktop computer, 250 watts running and 125 in standby mode, the lappie saves a lot of electricity if you're using it a lot. Not to mention keeping the desktop in standby @125 watts is pretty much a non-starter.

Since both our laptop and desktop are getting a little "long in the tooth", and at the mention of the computer my wife spontaneously said "We should get a new computer. We've had these for a couple of years. We should get a really nice one. We can afford it" I may be at costco sometime in the next day or two buying a widescreen laptop as our new primary machine...

Did I mention how much I love my wife?

 

[Brat]

Were I to guess.. I would guess that the power hog is the monitor. How do the new LCD monitors compare to the others in power usage?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Both my laptop and desktop use lcd monitors. The measurement I made of 250 watts for the desktop included the whole system. I just unplugged the powerstrip and ran that through the kill-a-watt. That was tower, monitor and cambridge soundworks three piece speaker system. My new 32" lcd monitor pulls about 220 watts all by itself. I'm not 100% sure thats a big savings over a CRT. As you can see in the start of the thread, of my 4 television or television like devices, the two most miserly are the 65 and 55" CRT rear projection sets in the mid 100w range, while the 55" LCoS and the 32" lcd use over 200 watts. Wouldnt have been my guess, but thats the situation. All but the 55" crt set (which is 10 years old) are labeled "energy star".

 

[HFWR]

Spec for my Samsung 50" DLP says 200w; YMMV...

 

[Brat]

32" lcd use over 200 watts

Interesting!!

 

[TromboneAl]

"We should get a new computer. We've had these for a couple of years. We should get a really nice one."

This is the conversation that goes on in my mind every few months:

"I should get a new computer. I've had this one for six years. Oh, wait a second, that would mean reinstalling and trying to transfer hundreds of applications, losing settings, dealing with Microsoft, making tech support calls. Forget it!"

 

[TromboneAl]

My ViewSonic 19" LCD takes 56 watts in use, and 1.5 watts in power-save mode.

Note that the label states 180 watts.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Moving to a new machine is always a couple of days of 'adventures'.

Unfortunately after looking at stuff all day long I cant find anything 'better enough' than my old stuff to warrant the price. I usually buy PC equipment near the high end...you can find so-called 'sweet spots' where you get the most bang for your buck, but its a little sweeter if you can stand using the machine for an extra year or more.

Still the only thing that ever has me tapping my feet is 2 hours to 'save a movie' from windows movie maker and another 2 hours to transcode it to a dvd...

 

[TromboneAl]

A faster DVD drive might be a cheaper solution.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This is pure CPU stuff before the thing even writes to disk. That takes ten minutes.

Plenty of memory, plenty of disk bandwidth. CPU pegged to 100%.



I'm running a slightly overclocked rig based on a 2.4GHz pentium 4 and an Albatron motherboard. Giving me about 2.8GHz cool and safe while i'm doing this stuff. I run at box-stock 2.4 otherwise.

Even if I blew $500-600 on a really fast p4 or athlon and new mobo/ram I'd cut the four hours down to two. And I'd still have to reinstall windows xp.

And for a few bucks more, I could get a whole new machine with the same horsepower, a new dual sided dvd drive, etc.

Main problem is my camera records raw AVI. When I try to transcode that directly to mpeg2 I get a stupid error message regarding the avisplitter codec that causes the dvd transcoder to die. If I replace the avisplitter with one that works with the dvd transcoder, windows movie maker vomits when I try to save an edited movie. I'm sure theres a solution that suits both, but it probably involves buying and learning a new movie editor or buying and learning a new dvd mastering program.

 

[travelover]

My Kill-a-Watt is coming from Ebay - woohoo -

JohnP

I dragged up this old thread because I just got a Kill-o-Watt meter. At $21 from Amazon, I may give some as Christmas gifts this year. Neat gizmo.

 

[dumpster56]

I dragged up this old thread because I just got a Kill-o-Watt meter. At $21 from Amazon, I may give some as Christmas gifts this year. Neat gizmo.

Nah, Just move near a nuclear power plant, we are paying 8.045 cents a KWH. Heck 2700 sq foot house 50 bucks a month, even with two central AC units in the Hot summer never over 180 a month!

 

[Moemg]

Wow is it old thread month again !

 

[dumpster56]

Wow is it old thread month again !

Better I post on these old threads and stay away from political rantings.

 

[MissNancy]

Amount of energy to run my solar oven "0"