What is the "Typical" residential PC home desktop power usage ?

trinaz · 15 Dec 2012

Obviously there a many, many different home desktop configurations out there...from a top of the line latest desktop setup to one that's 6 or 7 years old....but...is there an accepted "average" elctrical power usage for the "common' home desktop PC ?

How would one estimate/check an individual desktop PC's energy use (ie. cost per hour or day if left on 24hrs) without having to purcahse any expensive watt-o-meter type unit ?

Thanks....TRinAz

edwar · 15 Dec 2012

Simple leave it on 24/7 for a month then for the next month use it as you would normally. Look at your bill for the 2 different months.

Other then that the meter is the only way.

Layback Bear · 15 Dec 2012

Their all some where over a million web sites that give you all kinds of How To Measure computer power usage but I like Edwar's way. The last time I worked out the amount of power my computer used was a couple of years ago and it was pennies a day.

whs · 15 Dec 2012

Depends largely on what PC you have and what you do. But I would guess that 100 to 200 Watts is pretty average. So 10-20 hours PC is appr. the same as 1 hour washing machine.

Layback Bear · 15 Dec 2012

Some interesting information.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html

tommyg562000 · 15 Dec 2012

Purchase a kill-a-watt. This device plugs into the wall then you plug whatever you want to measure into it.