RE: {OTish} Power consumption

["James Hoye" <yahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have never had a problem with leaving my PC's on 24/7 (the HA
> system NEVER gets turned off [except for maintainance]).  However, I
> was wondering how much this impacts on my leccy bill... I was
> horrified to find that 100W of power costs 15.6p/hr!  That means a

1kWh typically costs around 7 - 8 pence depending on supplier/tarrif.  So
if
you run a 1 kW load for one hour that costs say 7p.

100W is going to be 0.1 x 7 or 0.7p per hour.

> 400W powerpack costs £14 a day to run!  PLEEEASE tell me that this is
> wrong! That was for 1 PC and I run at least 4 at all times (including
> some Compaq SCSI enclosures with 750W powerpacks!)

Don't forget that although a PSU may be RATED at 400W, that doesn't mean it
uses 400W.  It means it's capable of supplying 400W - so unless you have a
plethora of drives, PCI cards etc. you won't be near this figure.

This is one of the main reasons that I like the mini ITX boards so much -
the C3-800 processor consumes a measly 4W.  Whilst it isn't fast by any
standards, it's ideal for 24/7 servers in my environment - running a few
websites, FTP server, Asterisk etc.

James H