A neighbour has a new-this-year UK-assembled generic Windows 7 PC, and a decade-old flat-screen non-CRT Philips monitor from Denmark.
Nocturnally, these are turned off by closing Windows and by pressing the little button on the lower front of the monitor.
What power, in watts, is each of these two devices each likely to be drawing during the night?
If he's closing Windows, then he's switching the PC off. There'll be a small draw, but it really will be absolutely minimal.
Have a google for the monitor - the 8yo 24" Samsung flat on my desk is reputedly
Even a 5 year old Philips allegedly draws less than half a watt on standby.
I'd expect it to be similar on a PC PSU.
If you are really interested in this for many devices, an energy meter can be purchased from the likes of CPC for about £10 or so. Than you c an check every device in the house!
Here's one they are offering now, mine was less than £8.
Those are handly little meters but can be unreliable measuring low wattages.
I had an old Brennenstuhl PM230 power meter from Maplin (like the one you linked) which badly unread the power consumption of a CFL bulb.
But they are not very accurate at low power draws.
The monitor is probably well behaved but is of an era when the backlight probably wastes a fair bit f power when in use.
It is a lot more variable than that. Some maintain the memory power by default depending on BIOS settings and the worst offender by far can be the amplifier for the 5+1 loudspeakers! One of mine draws the same power on or off and merely illuminates a blue LED in addition when "on".
Worst PC I have seen recently about 4W best
Although true it will help you find the rogue devices which are drawing silly amounts of standby current (eg some older digital TVs).
The Owl clip on mains measurement kit stands a good chance of shaving
10% off your electricity bill if you have never optimised base load.
(1) Initial false assumption. (2) It is that draw which I wish to know; I do not want its significance evaluated.
(3) I asked "during the night" - but you have quoted the daytime rate.
Can anyone give actual answers (and no more) to the actual question?
No, since there is insufficient information.
1/. "these are turned off by closing Windows and by pressing the little button on the lower front of the monitor" does not actually tell anyone what the actual state of the PC is. 2/. What a PC draws in ANY state it's in (apart from completely disconnected from the mains) is absolutely a function of the actual PC. Which you didn't specify.
No. The question as posed is impossible to answer since it depends critically on the exact model of PSU in the generic PC and potentially on certain BIOS settings (ie keeping the memory active in suspend mode).
Likewise the model number and version could be used to find the LCD display manufacturers claimed power consumption in standby.
The only way to find out for sure is to *measure* it on the actual kit.
And in fact measuring very very low duty cycle current into very low power switched mode PSUs, is in itself a highly suspect enterprise.
(The modern tendency is to have two switched mode PSUS - one that runs the 'standby' power unit, and which switches on the main switched mode PSU when the start button is pressed).
Not with the information given. If you wish to know exactly, you'd need to give make and model numbers. And hope someone has details. Or Google for their instruction books, which may just give standby power consumption.
Actual, as in what does that actual setup draw, no, for the reasons already given.
But for the PC and monitor given, it's likely to be 'not a lot' to worry about.
FWIW,
For this PC here, the important guts of which (PSU and mobo) - are probably about 5 yo. The monitor is a no-name LCD about 8 yo.
On standby (as in with the PC asleep', rather than turned off) it the combo draws 5W. With windows shutdown it draws
Indeed although it will probably give a good indication if the thing is drawing an outrageous standby power. Some older TVs are ~20W by default. This makes a standby powersaving switcher (~£4) worthwhile.
Most well designed kit these days is well under 0.5W on standby.
Cheap and nasty ones tend to be around 4W continuous and some of the PC sound boxes are not actually powered off even when switched off!
I've emasured two CRT iMac from about 2001 they were between 2-4 watts on shutdown, this is I believe due to the IEC filtering socket not being as efficient as it should/could be. Sleeping was 30 watts ! My G4 tower was 5 watts on shutdown.
I doubt that the mains filter could ever be that inefficient.
~5W is typical of maintaining the ram contents for a quick start.
Although some cheap and nasty PSUs are that bad at maintaining power for the on/off switch logic I wouldn't expect to see one in an Apple.
There's more than just the main filter in a sleeping imac. The screen while blank is active and them memeory and a lot of the other components werre active when in sleep mode.
it is what it was/is.
A typical rate, as additional information. Did you tell us anything about your neighbour's supply tariff?
Chris
I've seen PCs vary from a low of half a watt to a high of 5 or 6 watts (any higher is likely to be a failing Bestec PSU or a shedload of USB gadgets drawing power via the main board's usb sockets when programmed to stay live in the cmos setup).
Computer monitors typically draw from half to 2 watts in standby (when not explicitly switched off) and may draw from zero to half a watt when switched off by its own power button.
As you can see, there's quite a range of uncertainty in the answer to your question. The user guides may offer some data regarding their power consumption (typically true for monitors - far less so, ime, with desktop PCs) or else you beg, borrow or steal a £9.99 plug in 'energy monitor' (aka, 'digital watt meter') and take your own measurements. Maplin's N67FU will give reasonably accurate readings for just this sort of test.
HTH & HAND.
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