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April 23, 2006
Your [extremely] power-hungry PC
Here's a sobering thought. The average PC in Stand By mode consumes anything from five to 60 watts or more of electricity. In Britain, they've calculated that while a single PC is supposed to be "sleeping", it's actually consuming a considerable amount of energy.
We're having problems working out precisely how much energy, mind you. What do you make of the following statement: "If a million PC users switched to a more efficient power supply, it would save almost the equivalent of 250 million litres of gasoline a day." We're assuming that the phrase "a more efficient power supply" means, umm, one which doesn't actually use power when the thing is supposed to be off.
But it can't be right, can it? Wouldn't you expect those million PC users to be just a touch upset - not to mention completely broke - if collectively their computers were guzzling 250 million litres of gasoline a day? We expect they mean 250 million litres of gasoline a year. Or have our admittedly puny mathematical skills completely deserted us?
Although, possibly those devious little bastards have somehow worked out a way to sneak out of doors while your sleeping ... and they're supposed to be sleeping ... and siphon petrol out of your, and your neighbours' cars.
By the way. Just watched Roman Road on ABC TV. A lovely little show with two fine actors, Alan Davies and John Gordon Sinclair. Too bad they don't make shows like that in Australia. They probably don't have enough money left over after Big Brother etc.
Perhaps if a million Australian PC users got more efficient power supplies and sent their collective savings off to the television networks, we might get to watch something that wasn't tailored to the tastes of a voyeuristic schoolboy. Or alternatively, could we pull the plug on a million Big Brother watchers, and confiscate their petrol money?
Posted by cw at April 23, 2006 10:15 PM
Comments
Umm.... My power supply makes a noticable CLICK when it turns off. The PSU fan stops, too. A little green LED stays lit on the motherboard, to say "HEY! There's power here!" I refuse to believe that one little solitary green LED can soak up anything like 60W of electricity - aren't LED's supposed to be environmentally friendly and drain less power than the equivalent brightness globe?
Posted by: Newman at April 24, 2006 03:39 AM
There are devices you can buy that can detail exactly how much electricity a device consumes.
I have nothing to do with it (wish I did) but here's the link -->
http://www.centameter.com.au/
Cheers,
Kolya
Posted by: Kolya at April 26, 2006 09:30 AM
I don't understand the difficulty turning the computer off each night - I do it at home, and at work, although being at a university, I know that we have rooms of computers here that are left on all the time :/ and if you're not sure whether the computer is off or not... there's a switch on the powerpoint that can sort that problem out for you :D
Posted by: Chris at April 26, 2006 10:08 AM