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How Much Does It Cost To Run Your PC? You may be surprised

overclockers.com — Most people speculate that running my PC 24/7 may cost about 10 dollars per month. However, with increasing fuel / electricity prices, this new estimation may surprise you.

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SirGrant 1 year 348 days ago, made popular 1 year 347 days ago

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trickrick1985, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16It depends on your power supply. If your supply has 37 leads and some go to your built-in garbage disposal it's going to be more.
- neoform, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Also depends on how much you're paying for electricity..
  
  Up here in Quebec we have way too much power from Hydro Electricity.. I end up paying about 3-4 cents (CAD) per hour.. heh
  
  I have 4 computers on all the time with several external devices and i still only pay about $30/month (total).
- SuckMyDigg, on 10/12/2007, -35/+3hahaha true true
- pwill, on 10/12/2007, -134/+6You have a built in garbage disposal in your computer?
  
  I think a more appropriate question is "How much does it cost to maintain your PC?"
  If you run Windows, it's going to be more. For Windows, you need to deal with virii and and malware.
  Using GNU/Linux, I have never paid for anything related to maintenance. Linux FTW!
- heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -8/+66STFU about Linux, this article has nothing to do with operating systems, viruses, or malware. You hurt your cause more than help it when you act like some kind of psychotic cheerleader for Team Linux.
- Misanthrope, on 10/12/2007, -12/+40Linux is still PC based you ***** tool.
- goat4, on 10/12/2007, -12/+23that is the stupidest ***** thing ive ever heard, iamcitizen
- sakuraz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Still, funny
  
  I have two computers on almost whole day every day, and a laptop me and my mom use proactively to watch videos on dinner table, etc
  
  and my whole monthly bill is less than $80 AUD
- Malakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9This article is highly misleading and possibly inaccurate. Buy a cheap watt meter if you want to know how much power your components are using--don't assume your UPS software is accurate.
  
  This guys computer also has a ton of stuff in it, so it does not reflect that of the average computer user--not even close.
  
  My personal system--which is a reasonably high end gaming system--idles at 109W AC, and my 19 inch monitor uses 25 watts. Another system I have here which is more of a basic system but still not low end idles at 48W AC. These are all measured at the wall outlet with a watt meter.
  
  I pay $0.0633 per kWh, which is about half of what that author apparently pays.
  My main system including the LCD costs me about $6/month to run based on it running 24/7 at idle.
  
  Here are some more example systems from a reliable source:
  http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page4.html
  
  I'm marking this as innacurate myself.
- inkysplat, on 10/12/2007, -16/+0i'm too drunk and tired to read the ***** article though i can only assume that the choice in operating system may have an impact on power consumption. I'm not being as blunt or as fanboy-ist as iamcitizen. However i use a laptop and i find that 9 times out of ten linux tends to handle the cpu scaling much better than windows. Such as Windows will just jump from minium clockspeed to the maxium. Linux likes to jump between at hundred Mhz intervals. This is personal experience though and is probabily laptop specific. But on the other hand Linux doesn't actually turn my screen off it just turns the backlight off meaning that the image is still be displayed on screen. Something which is Windows doesn't do... Windows will turn the whole monitor and screen/backlight off. Again just personal experience.
  
  Hopefully my drunkeness hasn't offended although you must understand I am a fresher at University this week... and sad as it may seem, I decided to check digg.com after a night on the beer.
- neatflux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2inkysplat, that made no sense. Changing clockspeed?
  
  When you wake up you'll be just as confused.
- phatvolvo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://digg.com/userblock/257296
  
  should solve your problems.
- pwill, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2@Misanthrope:
  
  What the hell does that mean? "Linux is PC based"?
- fatnutz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6He's trying to say the OS doesn't hold any relevance to power consumption, they're based on X86.
  
  ***** optical drives, video cards, monitors and processors are the factor when combined with uptime.
  
  Get a life you *****, anyone proficient at computers in general knows how to fend off malware and viruses with little effort, it has nothing on power consumption. I get so tired of you lame *****.
- theRIAA, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2"Also depends on how much you're paying for electricity..
  
  Up here in Quebec we have way too much power from Hydro Electricity.. I end up paying about 3-4 cents (CAD) per hour.. heh
  
  I have 4 computers on all the time with several external devices and i still only pay about $30/month (total)."
  
  god i hate Bush
- pshuman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I bought a Kill-A-Watt power meter and spent months moving it around my house to see how much different things used. It includes both a Watt meter and a cumulative KWHour timer. http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
  
  We pay 11 cents per KWHour as the baseline. Here are my results (yearly costs assume the same usage 24 hours every single day a year):
  
  IBM Thinkpad T43 with Pentium Mobile 2.00GHz:
  22 Watts when idle, but display and drive powered up ($22.04/year).
  14 Watts when idle with display and drive powered down ($14.03/year).
  
  Dell 19" P992 Monitor: 121.5 Watts ($121.73/year)
  
  Pentium 133 MHz firewall, single IDE drive: 36 Watts ($36.07/year)
  
  Early 1990's vintage Refrigerator: ($107.73/year)
  
  Wall Air Freshener: ($1.45/year)
  
  Dishwasher, Normal-HighTemp, with hot water at tap: 15 cents per load.
- HsoKinees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Up here in Quebec we have way too much power from Hydro Electricity.. I end up paying about 3-4 cents (CAD) per hour.. heh
  
  o_O I noticed a few days ago that my 64-bit Anthy PC uses around 75UKPence overnight.. that being about 6-7hours..
  atleast.. that's what EDF Energy is charging for it >:(
- Misanthrope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Man, this is ***** old and all...and no one will read this. But I just have to let you know...since you don't already. Any X86 ("IBM Compatible") based system is a PC. Most computers running Linux are PCs. Sorry if I threw you off there...you obviously a ***** tool.
  
  Oh wait...I already mentioned that...sorry.
Morca007, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2Broken.
Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeeeouch!

$45 a month?
- u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3you have to consider his comp, the 2 gb of ram and 2:256mb video cards are not exactly the most power saving pieces of hardware!
  and OBVIOUSLY you need something to cool all that!
  But is still sound a little ABSURD!
- sleepyness, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I doubt anyone would run 3 2405/7s 24/7, that's just retarded. I run my computer 24/7 but I shut my 2405 off when I'm not using it..he's crazy to leave his 3 24" monitors on 24/7. I'd be more scared of burn-in than the cost of electricity.
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dam. was gonna get a Crossfire solution with the best ATi DX10 cards that come out when it does. Looks like thats gonna run up the elec bill quite a bit.....
- shredswithpiks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@sleepyness
  
  luckily flat panel LCDs don't have burn in ~.O
0siris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Is this right?
I have like 5 computers, and since i added the three, that are on 24/7 i dont see a $20 increase on my bill, let alone the $150 the article suggests.
- dazichane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It sounds about right to me. I decided to turn my monitors off when not in use (I have a dual monitor setup) and my electricity bill dropped by $20.00 in one month.
raptordrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Hmm.... Somehow I find this hard to believe, because each time I've added a new computer to my collection, I havent seen any huge increase in bills - running 3 of em 24/7 definitely hasn't put $150 more on my bill.
Lomi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I pay like $40/month total, and my comp is on all the time... marked as innacurate
- painkillr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0how much do you pay per kw from the power company and what power supply do you run in your pc. do you have a pentium II with integrated video on the mobo or do you have a watercooled system w/ two 7900's in SLI mode and an overclocked athlon
  
  your post is stupid.
- agentbob, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1painkillr your stupid.
- painkillr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3... *you're
  
  so yeah, try not to call someone stupid w/o looking like an idiot in the process
superset, on 10/12/2007, -0/+445 bucks a month doesn't at all sound possible. My guess is closer to $20 a month if it's on all the time.
mgroat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This seems to include leaving the monitor on, which consumes more power than the computer itself. I redid the calculations, excluding the "Displays and External Devices" (but using his numbers for everything else) and got $18.14 per month.
u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+120-25 dollar increase in the electricity bill sounds more reasonable, unless he attached a toaster via usb!
- raptordrew, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Maybe he's doing the USB bar-b-que?
Bansuri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This guy did a lot of estimations. It's pretty easy to hook an ammeter up to the circuit that supplies the PC. Radio Shack, and probably any electronics supply house, sells an inline receptacle that will allow you to use your VOM to get a reading.
Also, if you have a clamp-on style you get an inline receptacle that isolates the line to allow you to use that style.
A lot of iffy math can quickly be replaced with a cheap test instrument that your dad probably has. Got me thinking though, if it is 500 watts idling, that's a problem! Better go check..
prockcore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I question his wattage measurements.

Yes, if your computer did pull 500 watts while idle it would cost $43 or so a month... but I don't think his computer is really pulling 500W while idle.
JaytB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anybody who likes to have some descent hardware need to spend a lot of money on it. And enthusiasts spending even more. I'm one of the latter. So for me it sounds ridiculous trying to save a few bucks a year by not actually using my PC. Even if the prices would quadruple (it probably will some time), I would still use it as much as now.
But that's probably off the case, nice to see an article pointing out life is getting more and more expensive.
jerame, on 10/12/2007, -0/+03 computers running 24/7 coupled with TV that's on pretty much 12-18 hrs a day and my bill (in winter with no AC) never broke $50. Sorry, but there's something not quite right about this story.
jizzimmy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Dorms for the win... sort of.
- DontSayFanboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I guess if your parents are paying the bill, sure. When I was in school, a tiny dorm room was way more expensive than renting a room in a house, to the tune of a few hundred dollars a month.
rsmiff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This is impossible. In the winter when we are not running AC our Electric bill tops out at around $150 per month. I have five computers running at all times. What about the lights, TVs (there are three on seems like constantly), microwave, washer, dryer, dish washer, ceiling fans....etc.

This is incorrect.
furo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Not even close (marked as inaccurate, in fact). One PC would have to run all devices at full load 24/7 to even think about coming close to those numbers, which were forcefully yanked out of a random body cavity.

The biggest concern really has to do with running electronic equipment in the summer. Because they put out heat, offsetting that heat transfer will dictate how much more electricity you use in a given month. Running the A/C to compensate is more expensive than the actual power usage from the equipment, in many cases. But that depends on where you live and your tolerance to warm rooms. The upside is that you get the benefit of the added space heaters during the winter months.

There are devices sold that will let you see how much electricity devices are actually using. They are fantastic investments, given the relative price for such things these days. Here's an example:

http://www.energyfederation.org/consumer/default.php/cPath/388_254

I think you'll be more surprised by how *little* power PCs actually use when they aren't being pushed hard. Most peoples' homes I visit are using more electricity to light the room than to run the PC.

-Furo
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Or, if you keep your rack in the basement, where it's always considerably cooler in the summer, and where you don't send a whole lot of heating/cooling anyway, then you don't worry about offsetting that heat generation so much.
- TheJosher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Part of the problem is probably his setup..
  
  He's using three large monitors (probably where most of the electricity is going), two video cards, three internal hard drives, another external, two DVD-RW drives, etc. More than your average user I'd wager.
  
  I still doubt that even with all that he's pulling 500 watts.
PcChip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm guessing this is innacurate. He should have used an actual power monitoring device, like the "Watts Up" device that other websites use to determine power draw.
dawglse, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2how do some of you have below $50 energy bill? mine is like $600 per month.
- DontSayFanboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Where do you live, the international space station? Here is my gas and electric bill for a small 2 person house in california. I have a mythtv box running 24/7, a laptop that's always on and a dual G5 in the bedroom. No AC though, we live next to the beach.
  
  Gas
  08/09/2006 To 09/08/2006
  $12.06
  Electric
  08/09/2006 To 09/08/2006
  40.42
  Energy Commission Tax
  0.08
  Gas PPP Surcharge
  0.53
  Utility Users' Tax
  3.67
  
  TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES
  $56.76
- daldredge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You need to exclude the cost of the grow lights...
- genericwhiteguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I moved from a place that had temperature extremes-- cold in the winter, 110 plus in the summer-- to a place at the beach that was about 72 degrees all year.
  
  In the first place with heat and air conditioning, my bill was regularly 200+ a month. Once I moved to the beach and didn't use heat or air my bill dropped to $30 a month...
  
  I'd say heating and cooling are the big expenses.
doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I find these results hard to believe - I've never plugged in a new PC and noticed my electric bill going up - certainly not $50 plus/month!
powerlockdoors, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He should have used something like this:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7657/
- doktorrocket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very handy. I have one, great for checking what's REALLY impacting your power bills.
  
  My single video card 3ghz Pentium draws about 100 watts when idle, and 250 when playing games.
FearNLoathing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, ok. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 other people. We have 3 computers running 24/7 and we use the HVAC quite a bit. On average, we pay about $240/mo for electricity. We pay about $.14 - $.16 per Kwh. This month we used 1577Kwh.
- furo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's an interesting thing to consider:
  
  http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/studentdownloads/DEA350notes/Thermal/thcondnotes.html
  
  Body heat can lend to your HVAC usage more than you might think. The more activity in the space, the higher the heat output of the humans, as well as all of the electronic devices that 3 people would use on a regular basis. $240/month doesn't seem all that bad for a summer electricity bill.
goat4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i hate to see how much mine costs...

600W power supply, 21'' crt monitor, 700watt 5.1 surround sound w/ 12'' 600w subwoofer... :(
- furo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just because you have a 600W power supply doesn't mean you are using 600W of juice. That's simply the maximum peak load that it is rated to handle. Same for the sound systems... the numbers are their max output levels, which are rarely, if ever, achieved, much less sustained. In reality, the 21" monitor is probably using about as much as the PC during normal usage (150-200W, depending on the model, age and relative efficiency). CRT displays and TVs are power hogs and huge heat producers, so if you're concerned about the electricity bills, be sure to shut them off, if anything.
  
  -Furo
- goat4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3oh trust me... i use most of it :)
blaket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's pretty much the reason that my PC is only on when I'm gaming. I do, however, leave my G5 Tower on all the time -- though it goes to sleep after 15 minutes of non-use, so that should minimize the electricity use. At least I hope that's the case.
mooseboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Who leaves their monitors on while they're gone? O_o
- blaket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My wife does that ALL the time. Pisses me off in a major way too. Argh.
- Thor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What your monitor doesn't go to sleep by itself if no one is using the computer?
bmson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's depend on where you live.
In Iceland you pay around $0.06 per KWh. But we have on of the cheapest electricity in the world only Sweden and Norway have cheaper (as far as I know)
unisprise, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This has convinced me to go and buy a kill-a-watt, a testing tool to measure energy draw. I was thinking of gettting one just to see how much my appliances use. I may also invest in a super-low energy consuming computer (with all my extra cash from lower electricity bills)
Pie_Man, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I live in Chattanooga and it is under the TVA. Electricity is pretty cheap here. I don't have natural gas so my electricity covers everything in my house.

Since we are in a rather moderate climate we don't have to have heat or air on all of the time. We live in a 14oo Sq ft. house and the entire electricity bill for me every month is only $50 MAX. Even in the middle of winter it is only $80.

This is everything....A/C, Water heater, Lights, 2 meals a day.

Oh yeah...and a P4 3.0 server running 24/7
bloodywolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0move the decimal one space to the left and it might be accurate.
carl0ski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The Price and usage estimates on the Site are clearly flawed.

My PC very similar
Old Pentium 3 230Watt powersupply (yes thats right)
Athlon X2 3800+
2GB DDR400
4x 200 GB Sata HDD
256MB Geforce 7600GT
Soundblaster Audigy

Clearly my PC doesnt achieve the power draw running 3d games his does since my PC would shut off

PS I use linux his comment that Windows saved his power was stupid each product has a maximum power usage
"I was under the premise that the CPU would draw 90 watts,plus 20 or so for each stick of RAM (4 sticks, 80 watts), 30 watts per hard disk (90 watts total), and so forth."
90 watts rating is the maximum power consumption on AMD Processors you'd be lucky if it draws half that that figure most of the time.

and assumimg he collected the correct ratings
HDD only use that power level when active. the are very good at IDLE power usage and shutting off
TravisS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Most power companies charge a lot more during the day (peak) hours and considerable less during the night hours. These stats seem way to high.
m00dy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1all my utilities are included in my rent (fixed cost)

*keeps everything on 24 hours a day wasting electricity
HiCaP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is one of the reasons I went from my 21" crt to a 21" widescreen lcd, half the wattz
I also use my laptop a lot more then I used too and I do see a difference in my bills.
I would like to see a lot more reviews show these kind of stats also.
radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1$60 is about right. I've noticed my electricity bill is roughly $40-50 higher in months when I leave my desktop PC on 24/7 (it's a nice high-end box with an AMD 64 X2, a PCP&C 510 watt power supply, SLI, etc). If I shut it down at night and while I'm away at work, I notice a difference.
fjc8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My only big computer (Athlon64 3500, twelve hard drives) consumes around 250w on idle.

That's less than $10/mo here.

My Shuttle XPC consumes less than 60w when on.

Since it's on standby most of the time, that's $0.70 not counting standby (assuming it's on 1/5 of the time).

My laptop consumes less than 25w when not charging (usually, but not always, less). That'd only be $1.50/mo if powered all the time at 25w usage.
BigBrother87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is just a theoretical. If you have his exact setup, with the monitors on all the time, running UT2004 or a benchmark utility, you will get similar results. Yes, you will most likely have a lower consumption in real life, but he's saying theoretical.
reklus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Electric bill in front of me.

Months with ac - about $80

No ac around $65

always at least one desktop on at least 8 hours a day.

2 laptops at least 12 hours a day.

at least 10 50-100 watt light bulbs on at least 6 hours a day.

By his math...

I can't afford electricity AND rent.
scb0825, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so by his math, my five machines running in my house 24/7 under reasonably load should cost well above what my electric bill is for my all electric home each month.
Nerys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Inaccurate. how can you mark hard unarguable accurate "facts" as inaccurate ? not applicable maybe (who the hell pays 12cents a kwh ?? ouch !)

My server which runs sage tv to record my TV shows I built specifically for low power consumption. it consumes an average idling even while recording of 74watts of power. I figure it cost me about $3 a month to run it. I dont count the LCD since its almost never on. it just sits there and "runs" recording my shows (4 tuners)

I have also replaced as many of my lights as I can with LED lights. for basic see aroundlighting my room consumes about 4 watts of power. when I need to actually see something I turn on the halogen floor lamp with a half power bulb at half strength. so about 80watts of power when needed and it illuminates the whole room.

I want to build a multi buld led lamp to light the whole room but I need 10 of them and they are $40 a pop :-(
potskie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Not really sure what to say about this. his math seems sooo very inaccurate. but when i use it on my own machine at my 5cents a Kwh its 8 bucks a month. which seems about right and my machine uses between 200 and 250W so hmm he must live in california.
HsoKinees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1heh.. funny how people are kicking down Linux-related posts.. but don't they have a point?
I swear I heard something about Linux systems using a kind of low-power mode so it doesn't waste asmuch power as a windows pc? or perhaps they were talking about overall CPU% usage.. the hgher that is, the more power consumed..
etechonline2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i run a laptop half on battery and half on ac. so i think im saving power.
Phoenixfury, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I notice the article takes into consideration when he's sleeping, but not really any mention of the pc being in sleep mode. I admit I skimmed over the article and may have missed it, but how you have your power saving mode sets can be a huge factor on how much power your pc consumes. My desktop is still set for the default power management settings on a normal Windows XP install. I don't remember the exact numbers, but after so much time my hard drives spin down and my video shuts down which also puts my monitor to sleep as well. However I usually just manually shut off the monitor anyway. So far I haven't heard any complaints from my housemate who does pay the electric bill. However I do know our bill is typically in the $50 range which isn't bad. As long as your running the default power management settings, you shouldn't have a problem running your pc 24/7.
rh387, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i say bull. i have no less than 3 computers on 24/7 and it doesnt cost nearly as much. also, the displays can be shut off when you are not using them.
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