What is Digg?180 Comments
- amish, on 10/12/2007, -2/+110Many torrent clients have an option to shutdown once the downloads are complete.
- johnsto, on 10/12/2007, -4/+69Also, don't forget most modern BIOS's have an option for your computer to wake up at a time of your choosing. For example, each night I hibernate my primary machine, and at 6am each morning the BIOS turns it back on to finish any torrents. It means I don't have to leave it on all night, and it's ready and running when I get up!
Then my mythtv machine is just a low-power (60W?) Epia so that can stay on the whole time without too much damage... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+46Same goes for the TV and lights etc.
It's one of those things that annoys me, people leaving things on for no reason . . . . don't get me started on people that leave the TV on for "background noise" - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+42Damn it don't you have any respect for the size of my uptime figures. How geeks across the world compensate if we can't wave our enormous uptimes in the face of random people.
- diggahplease, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35Help the community out, leave your torrents on!
The amount of money spent leaving computer on =! amount of money saved in the hundreds of GBs you've downloaded. - lump1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35You're greedy bastards. My uTorrent is set so that when I'm sleeping or away from home, it uses 100% of my upload bandwith. I'm probably the person that you're leeching from! I deliberately built a low-power system, though the Core2 Duo I have is actually not as efficient at idling as I thought it would be. I regret not getting a 65nm AMD, which seriously downclocks on minimal load and uses about half the power of the C2D at idle. Oh well, I'll pay for my mistake, literally!
- cr4ft, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36*plugs ears
I'm not hearing you....im not hearing you - twertyto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31ROFL That's funny cause your 14. If you still have this mentality at 18 then you need a swift kick in the ass. Enjoy those teenage years.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+31that less expensive than i thought it would be. frankly, i can deal with the extra $20 a month..
- deadbaby, on 11/12/2007, -3/+28Sorry if my fancy words offend you. Let me try again
Well I'll tell you what.. I stuck that there plug into my dang ole tester whatcha-ma-callit and just like a dog with fleas I was annoyed to find how much money them ole thangs were costing me up. So I told ole' jed down at the computtter shop to fix me up with something that work better. Now I'm happier than a pig in *****. YEEEE HAAAWWW! - deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23Erm, not really... The US power grid is run on coal, hydro-electric and nuclear -- not oil.
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27loss of testicles...
- Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20@brundlefly76 "I would gladly hibernate my home computers if I Wake On Lan was easier to use and more reliable with Windows"
Exactly!
I have a development web server in my basement (doesn't everyone?). I would let it sleep all the time if it would just wake when I sent an HTTP request. I haven't figured out how to do that, however, so it stays on all the time. What a waste. - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21I leave my computer on to compensate for the awful weather here in Wales. *Shudders* so cold....
- brundlefly76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19If there is one thing I think computer and OS manufacturers need to fix to help with idle power draw it is WAKE ON LAN.
I would gladly hibernate my home computers if I Wake On Lan was easier to use and more reliable with Windows and Linux, but its always been a very awkward and unreliable system. - lolgamoff, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23It's never cool to be a dick to your parents by making them pay more just so you can d/L wAreZ.
- Brickhaus, on 11/12/2007, -2/+19pffffttt...I can't sleep without the soft, ambient hum of my computer and the 8 fans inside.
- Falldog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I’m used to having my computer on at night simply for the pleasant white noise the fans provide. If the power goes I’ll hear my computer shut off and have to get up and turn it back on in order to sleep well lol
- thinairbikes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16I have one of those power meters....handy little devices. Anyway, I managed to get my file server (P3 1GHzx2, 3HDD's), my firewall (P3 800MHz), my modem, unmanaged gig switch, voip adapter, cordless phone and UPS cut down to about 85W when idling. It used to be almost 200W before I started removing stuff I don't really need, aka a managed switch (40W), my firewall boots off a compact flash card instead of a harddrive, no cd-rom, etc, etc. It all adds up in the end.
What I did notice is that my 32" CRT TV, DVD and VCR player collectively consume 17W while turned off (in standby). - johnsto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Doesn't MCE support using the BIOS alarm to wake it up a few minutes before recording? (MythTV can do this)
- DEADB33F, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18It costs the same amount as it would to leave an equivalent wattage electric heater on 24/7.
As my house is heated electrically I'm not to worried, especially in the winter. - dieinafire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16i agree. i have both a high-powered rig for gaming, and a 3 year old dell that we leave running 24/7, and our power bill is never more than $35 a month. that's including tivo and a 46" toshiba projection (that we watch minimum 5 hours a day).
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13fascinating... according to this... my PCs are using more electricity than my electric company charges me!
- thealliedhacker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I'm always running Folding@Home when I'm gone, so nobody's gonna "guilt trip" me into turning it off instead. My electricity is put to use at least.
- absorbation, on 10/12/2007, -8/+19You should turn your computer off if it is just sitting there, doing no tasks what-so-ever. You will be saving vital energy, something which we all need to do. I wish everyone would turn off appliances they don't use, it all adds up to our carbon footprint in the end.
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12A power monitoring device is a great investment. I recently audited all my gear and replaced a few items to save about 200W. It also helps to find out which devices are drawing excessive power when they're in "standby mode" I make a point now of flipping the surge protector off instead of letting them burn power. I really don't mind waiting an extra 30 seconds if they have to startup cold.
- einsteindesign, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12"...Wow this is nothing. $200/year can't buy anything better than instant PC access...."
OK, Prelude, let's do some extrapolation.
- 600,000,000 computers worldwide
- if just 10% of those users do an overnight-sleep routine, at 1400 kilowatt-hours (from the article), that's roughly 84,000,000,000 (billion) kilowatt-hours saved annually
- or to put it another way, that's 84 billion kilowatt-hours that do not need to be GENERATED, which can be scrutinized in any number of ways: pounds of fuel-oil per KWh, tons of CO2 not emitted, plants not needed to be built, etc.
- that's also 230,000,000 KWh daily, and roughly $33 million using the rates FTA
Dunno about you, but I can certainly think of a few better things to do with $12 trillion than piss it away for instant-on convenience. - 15charmaxwtf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12@johnsto
Wouldn't it be better to download torrents overnight when power is cheapest? And then have your torrent client turn of your computer after they have finished. - DeFex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11since I do not need to heat the room with the computer in it in the winter. it costs the same as leaving it off (more or less) so i leave folding@home running to get MORE heat output on really cold days. That way your electricity gets used 2 times. once for folding proteins for humanity and once to heat up the room.
- DEADB33F, on 10/12/2007, -8/+17Just out of interest, why was this dug down?
Computers turn all the wattage they use into heat. Electric heaters do the same.
So if you have two computers using a combined 500w, it's identical to leaving a 500w electric heater on all day.
Now if you live in a warm climate this is bad as it'll cost you more when you run your A/C to remove the excess heat created by your PCs. Here in the UK on the other hand it's cold most of the year so my 'wasted' 500w is actually being put to good use. - johnsto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10amish: I know (and used to use) utorrent's "hibernate on complete", but the reason I get my machine to wake up instead is that it means the machine is on for me in the morning, and if anything goes wrong (like all the seeds vanishing) then I know the machine will only have been on for an hour or so doing nothing, rather than the entire night. A lot more convenient, too.
- thalassicus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8@amish
"Many torrent clients have an option to shutdown once the downloads are complete."
Isn't the point of a torrent that you DON'T shut down once your download completes to give a little uploading time back for the health of the swarm? - D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7To be fair, my computer does nothing but just sit there....I don't walk around the house with it when it is on...
- themuffinman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@prelude
Would you mind informing me what else computers can turn electricity into? Look into the law of conservation of energy. - deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"Away Mode" is kind of a nightmare. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it just hangs your machine entirely. If you visit some MCE forums you'll see a lot of people having trouble with it because your drivers must be "away mode" aware to properly sleep/wake themselves. The only way to get it working reliability is to buy specific hardware that is known to work or go with a pre-built OEM system that has been designed to work properly.
- mikew101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Please remove your caps lock key.
- ez12a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@superal1394
I dont know about you, but my old P4 system that i built had an option in the BIOS where you could designate the method used for Stand By..I believe it was "S3 (STR)" mode. That would literally turn the computer off (fans included) and blink the power LED when put into Stand by mode in Windows. Hit a key, and you're back at the Log-in screen. I dont see how that's any different than OS X in terms of sleep...I'm sure they still have it on newer mobos. - zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5So what is your power bill?
Mine is 187.00/month in winters 135.00 in summers.
:(
Electric companies here rob me here because of the location. If I move away from these poles it is much cheaper but rent gets higher so its even out :( - thexfile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The thing about MCE is if you have a show scheduled to record...
- 3rdcoast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5i tried the old method of watching the dial spin on the meter, with the change in prices i figgered its about 24 dollars a box a month.
- piranhaa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I leave my 5 desktop PCs on 24/7 to help calculate a cure for global warming
- DoTheFandango, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7A seeder's gotta do what a seeder's gotta do.
- Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Another big thing that you can do is to switch from a CRT to an LCD monitor.
The wattage of an average CRT monitor is listed as 150 watts (awake) or 30 (asleep).
A typical LCD consumes 30-40 watts (awake) or 3-5 watts (asleep). - rslc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It also depends on your CPU, PSU, Graphics card and HDD.
Pentium 4, Pentium-D are the worst CPUs.
3.5 inch 7200rpm drives are high in power consumption and noisy too.
I under-clock my Pentium-4 2.8Ghz to 2.1Ghz, switch to 2.5" HDD, roughly saving about 50% power.
Alternatively, just use a notebook, which is about 80 percent lower power than a desktop. - scpen20, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Well, if your going to leave your computer on all the time, why not donate some of that unused time to something worthwhile, like fighting cancer.
http://folding.stanford.edu/ - ryancarnated, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Some of the energy is also converted into visible light (monitor) and motion of air (fans, for instance, which blow air and also make sound), but I'd bet most of the energy is transformed into heat.
- pabster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Anyone who is quibbling over the cost of running a PC(s) shouldn't have one.
My supercharged rig draws nearly 400 watts under full load (about 260 idle / low load) and I could care less. At most it adds $15 to the bill.
If you are concerned with saving energy and cutting your costs there are far bigger fish to fry. - HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Enron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis
Enron and other companies deliberately manipulated the electricity supply to California, leading to very high electricity prices and artificial shortages. The Bush adminisration claimed this was a California issue, even though they companies were shipping all our power out of the state to create the shortages. They also came out against price caps, with VP Cheney stating "It's classic economic theory. Price caps will neither increase supply nor reduce demand." After a few more weeks, the feds finally agreed to put price caps in place and the shortages ended immediately.
During the shortages, the state desperately signed long-term pricing contracts for electricity in an attempt to secure a reliable supply. These pricing contracts were at inflated prices and lead to the high prices we pay.
Some body will probably get on and try to imply it's California's own fault, stating the crappy deregulation framework in place. I would point out thought that although these lousy laws made it much easier to manipulate the energy supply, it did not make it legal nor moral. The blame has to fall with the companies who broke the law to line their own pockets. - digid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6@deadbaby
Not quite... Hawaii has a capacity of 2000MW almost exclusively powered by oil - mark_in_bc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+414.28 cents per kilowatt-hour is allot of money for electricity. In British Columbia we pay 6.738 cents per kilowatt-hour and that in Canadian funds. No matter what you pay it's always a good idea to conserve but how do they justify such a high price for electricity? I think Californians are being hosed by their utility companies. I'd hate to see what those poor folks are paying for natural gas.
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