I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

We heat using gas so there's the boiler pump (2 years old). I have
tried to reduce our electricity use but can't get usage down to less
than 12 kw/h per day. Average use is 15 kw/h. Also we keep getting
bulbs blowing - at least one per week. We had a man from SWEB to test
the meter about 6 months ago but nothing conclusive was found.
Unfortunately we have a new digital non-spinning disc meter so you
can't switch appliances on and off to see which is using a lot of
electricty. We have all RCD fuses fitted on the fuse board. Any
thoughts. Many thanks Alan of Exeter.

alanjones wrote:
I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

We heat using gas so there's the boiler pump (2 years old). I have
tried to reduce our electricity use but can't get usage down to less
than 12 kw/h per day. Average use is 15 kw/h. Also we keep getting
bulbs blowing - at least one per week. We had a man from SWEB to test
the meter about 6 months ago but nothing conclusive was found.
Unfortunately we have a new digital non-spinning disc meter so you
can't switch appliances on and off to see which is using a lot of
electricty. We have all RCD fuses fitted on the fuse board. Any
thoughts. Many thanks Alan of Exeter.

You're Shower and Washing machine will take up the bulk of electricity
useage then the oven, followed buy TV's and monitors, if and when the most
used computer is not being used but stays on, turn off the monitor.

Are you on a card meter? this type of supply generally works out dearer
than DD payment.

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

alanjones wrote:
I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

We heat using gas so there's the boiler pump (2 years old). I have
tried to reduce our electricity use but can't get usage down to less
than 12 kw/h per day. Average use is 15 kw/h. Also we keep getting
bulbs blowing - at least one per week. We had a man from SWEB to test
the meter about 6 months ago but nothing conclusive was found.
Unfortunately we have a new digital non-spinning disc meter so you
can't switch appliances on and off to see which is using a lot of
electricty. We have all RCD fuses fitted on the fuse board. Any
thoughts. Many thanks Alan of Exeter.

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

TVs say 100W each.

FFreezer, maybe 25W average.

Washing machine ~2kW (but not for long)

Oven, maybe 1.5kW average while on.

Say average lighting (when in use) 200W.

So, guessing at times:

Computers: (300W * 12) + (300W * 2) * 30 = 126kWh
TVs: (50W * 6) + (50W * 2) + (50W * 1) * 30 = 13.5kWh
FFreezer = (25W * 24) * 30 = 18kWh
Washing: (2kW * 0.5) * 15 = 15kWh
Oven: (1.5kW * 0.5) * 15 = 11.25kWh
Lights: (200W * 6) * 30 = 36kWh
Shower: (8.5kW * 20 * 0.25) * 4 = 170kWh

Total = 389.75kWh per month.

At 5p per unit this should be about £20 per month.

This back-of-an-envelope calculation shows that you should be paying
about £60 per month for the above usage. If you think you are using a
little more that the times I guessed then it all works out about right
- otherwise you need to look for possible problems such as an immersion
heater switched on or being on the wrong electricity tarriff (maybe you
are on economy 7!)

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

We heat using gas so there's the boiler pump (2 years old). I have
tried to reduce our electricity use but can't get usage down to less
than 12 kw/h per day. Average use is 15 kw/h. Also we keep getting
bulbs blowing - at least one per week. We had a man from SWEB to test
the meter about 6 months ago but nothing conclusive was found.
Unfortunately we have a new digital non-spinning disc meter so you
can't switch appliances on and off to see which is using a lot of
electricty. We have all RCD fuses fitted on the fuse board. Any
thoughts. Many thanks Alan of Exeter.

100 quid a quarter is cheep - thats not far off my monthly bill, and
we have a gas bill.

I have recently fitted switches to some of my electrical devices, so
we can actually switch them off (Not just to standby) without a major
hastle of getting the the wall socket behind them. I am hoping this
helps my bills.

Rick

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, alanjones wrote:

snip

Unfortunately we have a new digital non-spinning disc meter so you
can't switch appliances on and off to see which is using a lot of
electricty. We have all RCD fuses fitted on the fuse board. Any
thoughts. Many thanks Alan of Exeter.

But it should have a flashing LED in the fascia, and the flash rate is
proportional to kwh recording.

First thought, have you got and left on a loft light? 100w bulb will use a
nominal 2.4 units in 24 hours.

Switch everything off at the consumer unit, does the light stop flashing?
Check for several mins if you can.

Pull out all of the fuses in the C/U and replace them one at a time, watch
for when the light starts flashing frequently. That should pin down the
circuit.

Then check everything on that circuit, including pulling out all 13a plugs
and replacing them one by one, even if the appliance is switched off.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

--
http://gymratz.co.uk - Best Gym Equipment & Bodybuilding Supplements UK.
http://trade-price-supplements.co.uk - TRADE PRICED SUPPLEMENTS for ALL!
http://fitness-equipment-uk.com - UK's No.1 Fitness Equipment Suppliers.
http://gymratz.co.uk/hot-seat.htm - Live web-cam! (sometimes)

Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

300W for a PSU is small today. But what about the monitor, speakers,
printer, scanner...

My PC uses enough power that it can make the room noticably warm even
with no heating on in that room!

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.
(snip)
dishwasher (no longer used)

That is a false economy. A modern European spec dishwasher will likely use
less energy than hand washing.

electric shower (8.5 kw) no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

20 x 15 minutes a week for a year is 13,520 kWh. At 8p per unit, that makes
175 pounds a year. This leaves 225 for the rest of the house, which is quite
good.

Do you have a gas fired hot water system? If so, consider replacing your
inefficient electric shower with a decent mixer (with pump if necessary).
You will get a much more powerful shower that uses less energy.

Christian.

Sadly wrote:

Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;?) wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

300W for a PSU is small today. But what about the monitor, speakers,
printer, scanner...

Err, no, it's not, it's unbelievably large.
Yes, the 'sticker' rating may be 300W.
It will not be using 300W.
As a benchmark, my server, with 8 drives and monitor active used well under
200W.

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, alanjones wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

£400/year or £33/month seems ball park OK to me.

electric shower (8.5 kw) no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

= 5hrs/week = 42.5kWHr/week = 6kWHr/day...

I have tried to reduce our electricity use but can't get usage down
to less than 12 kw/h per day. Average use is 15 kw/h.

Lucky you we sit at around 22kWHr/day, without an electric shower,
cook by electric though, most lights are low energy.

You have gas for space heating and hot water? I suggest you switch the
shower to using your gas heated hot water. Pay a few pennies per kWHr
instead of your 7.33p/kWHr:

100/91 = £1.10/day / 15kWHr/day = 7.33p/kWHr.

You can probably find a cheaper tarrif, by maybe 2p/unit, if you look
around.

Also we keep getting bulbs blowing - at least one per week. We had a
man from SWEB to test the meter about 6 months ago but nothing
conclusive was found.

You mean you are having low energy bulbs blow once a week or ordinary
incandescant ones? Did the man from SWEB just test the meter (for
accuracy of power measurement) or did he measure the supply voltage as
well. He doesn't need to do the latter to check the former.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

300W for a PSU is small today.

The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk out
when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near that
pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a good
work out.

But what about the monitor,

LCD monitor up to 40W when on. About 1 or 2W when off.

speakers,

Approximately 0.5W.

printer,

About 1 or 2W when not printing.

scanner...

About 1 or 2W when not scanning.

Christian.

alanjones wrote:
I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

Buy at power meter thingy from Maplins (currently half price
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...8343&doy=4m12D) and you
can spend endless hours tracing the last few Watts being drawn.

For the very bored, http://www.free-conversant.com/matthelliwell/blog
has details of what was sucking all my power when I went though the same
process.

--
Matt Helliwell
matt at helliwell dot me dot uk
www.helliwell.me.uk

Christian McArdle wrote:
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

300W for a PSU is small today.

The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk out
when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near that
pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a good

Even with that, you'd struggle to hit 150W.
Maybe add on 10 drives, and you'd get 300.

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

Put some of those blank plug plates in all the un-used plug holes as
electricty may be leaking out and spilling onto the floor.



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

http://www.no2id.org/

In message , John Cartmell
writes
In article ,
"Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬)" wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

I have one here that uses a power supply outputting DC 5V 4A. OK most of that
power isn't used unless you populate all four of the USB ports.

Then it's not outputting 4A, is it ?

--
geoff

On 2005-12-19, Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

The little plug-in unit I got from Maplin that measures power consumption
through a mains socket shows my computers are currently using 670 VA
That's for 3 PC style computers (1 dual-processor), 2 monitors and a few
other odds 'n' sods like an inkjet printer, broadband etc.
If you want to know where all your power is going, I'd recommend spending
12.49 on a L61QAQ

Pete

--
.................................................. .........................
.. never trust a man who, when left alone ...... Pete Lynch .
.. in a room with a tea cosy ...... Marlow, England .
.. doesn't try it on (Billy Connolly) .....................................

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:38:47 +0000 (GMT), John Cartmell wrote:

In article ,
"Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬)" wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

I have one here that uses a power supply outputting DC 5V 4A. OK most of that
power isn't used unless you populate all four of the USB ports.

Dunno about these days, but circa 1995, a room of 50 PCS and a few other
bits and pieces blew the 60A mains fuse to the whole site.

We rplaced it with 100A, and even then we had to switch em on in realys
after a power cut.

I'd say a PC and monitor is about 100-150W these days.

In article om, Dave
Liquorice writes

£400/year or £33/month seems ball park OK to me.

Me too (£32/month), and my mix and usage of appliances is very similar
to the OP's. Although I do use the dishwasher and tumble dryer once or
twice a week, and don't have an electric shower.

The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk
out
when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near
that
pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a
good

Even with that, you'd struggle to hit 150W.

I wouldn't be so sure. I once upgraded my computer to a more recent
motherboard but didn't bother upgrading the ATX power supply, which was only
185W. Despite only having one hard disc and quite modest graphics (GeForce
2MX/Athlon XP 2400+), it would often cut out when doing hard graphical work,
or after about 10 seconds of disc access. Replacing the power supply with a
350W fixed it. So when it does hard work, the peak current draw can get
quite high.

Maybe add on 10 drives, and you'd get 300.

Christian.

"tarquinlinbin" wrote in message
...
On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

Put some of those blank plug plates in all the un-used plug holes as
electricty may be leaking out and spilling onto the floor.



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

http://www.no2id.org/

LOL
Perhaps you may have experienced this - when in digs many years ago the
landlady thought that when the electric was turned on to her garage/shed you
had to wait for it to arrive at garage/shed.

PhilC

Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.


At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.

We have 5 on all the time, one on evenings and weekends and one more
that is used every day but only for an hour or two.

3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings,

We have 6. 3 are on for the morning news, 2 (or sometimes 3) on in the
evenings and one is on for a couple of hours during the day. Only one
of them is every actually switched off (as opposed to standby) as it
doesn't have a remote.

1 fridge/freezer,

1 fridge, one freezer - both 1.8m tall.

dishwasher (no
longer used),

Dishwasher is used at least once every day

washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting),

washing machine used every day and tumble dryer used after every wash
for 9 months of the year.


microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

Pretty much the same except more showers - 15 during the week, 12 at
weekends.


We heat using gas so there's the boiler pump (2 years old).

Same as us. We also have a gas cooker (spit) but I don't think the
electronic ignition uses much in the way of leccy.

We also have a couple of pond pumps that are on about half the year.

There is also the stereo stuff (OK, surround sound but we still call
it the stereo) on every evening. Garden lights on in the evenings for
about 4 months of the year.

There also seems to be a mobile phone charging in every free socket
and a couple of games consoles on standby every day but I do go round
and switch them off every so often.

I would not like to get quarterly leccy bills - at least at the moment
the payments go out every month with the
mortgage/gas/phone/insurances/sky/TV licence/ISP charge/mobiles/water
etc so I don't have that thrice yearly shock (apart from, of course,
when someone reminds me of it like now...)


--
Warning: Do not look directly into laser with remaining eye.

In article ,
"Christian McArdle" writes:
The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk
out
when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near
that
pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a
good

Even with that, you'd struggle to hit 150W.

I wouldn't be so sure. I once upgraded my computer to a more recent
motherboard but didn't bother upgrading the ATX power supply, which was only
185W. Despite only having one hard disc and quite modest graphics (GeForce
2MX/Athlon XP 2400+), it would often cut out when doing hard graphical work,
or after about 10 seconds of disc access. Replacing the power supply with a
350W fixed it. So when it does hard work, the peak current draw can get
quite high.

My dual 2.8GHz Xeon at work idles at 200W and peaks at 310W
When fully loading both CPUs and thrashing both disks.

I don't have figures to hand, but I did measure some comparable
AMD opteron systems, and they idle at significantly lower power
power consumption (although that may vary by OS, depending how
well it handles power management), and outperform the Xeon system.

At home, I use an old P160 as a fileserver, and that runs at
between 40 and 60W depending on system load.

--
Andrew Gabriel

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:

Dunno about these days, but circa 1995, a room of 50 PCS and a few other
bits and pieces blew the 60A mains fuse to the whole site.

In 1995, PC power consumption was around 60W, plus another 60W
for a monitor. These figures had remained pretty much unchanged
for many years prior too, in spite of CPU performance going up.
However, the power factor was low and the inrush current high.

We rplaced it with 100A, and even then we had to switch em on in realys
after a power cut.

I'd say a PC and monitor is about 100-150W these days.

There's a wide range of PC power consumptions nowadays, but the
top end systems have all broken well away from that 60W figure
which applied for many years.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Christian McArdle" writes:
The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk
out
when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near
that
pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a
good

Even with that, you'd struggle to hit 150W.

I wouldn't be so sure. I once upgraded my computer to a more recent
motherboard but didn't bother upgrading the ATX power supply, which was only
185W. Despite only having one hard disc and quite modest graphics (GeForce
2MX/Athlon XP 2400+), it would often cut out when doing hard graphical work,
or after about 10 seconds of disc access. Replacing the power supply with a
350W fixed it. So when it does hard work, the peak current draw can get
quite high.

Many power supplies will not produce their 'sticker' outputs, and even
if they will, some boards load the power supplies in different ways, and
can't make use of all the power.
Not to mention that power supplies, especially cheap ones age, and their
ability to provide ripple free current decreases.

My dual 2.8GHz Xeon at work idles at 200W and peaks at 310W
When fully loading both CPUs and thrashing both disks.

I don't have figures to hand, but I did measure some comparable
AMD opteron systems, and they idle at significantly lower power
power consumption (although that may vary by OS, depending how
well it handles power management), and outperform the Xeon system.

Measured how?
Some power meters are very inaccurate.

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:38:47 GMT, Geoffrey
wrote:

Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.


Utility companies love to borrow money interest free from their
customers.

A better strategy is to arrange things so that at the end of the
billing year you owe them a small amount of money and they agree to
carry it forward, and put the excess into a suitable interest bearing
account.

That way you achieve the same objective, make more money and have a
better negotiating position with the utility suppliers, although it
may initially shock them that you are not willing to lend them money.
However, they soon get over that once you point out that you can shop
elsewhere and they can take the situation or leave it.



--

..andy

"Peter Lynch" wrote in message
...
On 2005-12-19, Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

The little plug-in unit I got from Maplin that measures power consumption
through a mains socket shows my computers are currently using 670 VA
That's for 3 PC style computers (1 dual-processor), 2 monitors and a few
other odds 'n' sods like an inkjet printer, broadband etc.
If you want to know where all your power is going, I'd recommend spending
12.49 on a L61QAQ

Pete

I am interested in obtaining this measuring device but would like to know
how it is used and how much information I can get.
Looking at the picture of the device I have assumed it plugs into a socket
any where on the circuit and you then plug in the item you want to check.
The reading will then be for this item only when it is operational
Then carry this out for every piece of electrical equipment.
Am I right in this assumption?
Blair

Geoffrey wrote:
Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.


18 x £125 = £2250. So you actually used £1250 of electricity or
£70/month. You are still paying way over the odds. Don't let them
bully you into making these payments, you can always change supplier.

MBQ

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:20:34 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:38:47 GMT, Geoffrey
wrote:

Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.


Utility companies love to borrow money interest free from their
customers.

Actually the reason they owe us so much is my fault - I misread the
meter early this year (transposed a couple of numbers) and as we
hardly ever seem to be in when the meter man comes to call it took
till last month before they realised. To give them their due, as soon
as they saw the problem they got right on it and phoned me up. I
rarely look at the bills myself.

A better strategy is to arrange things so that at the end of the
billing year you owe them a small amount of money and they agree to
carry it forward, and put the excess into a suitable interest bearing
account.

I'm sure you are right - I'll see how it goes for the next half year.

We certainly have reduced our leccy consumtion by just replacng all
the lamps with energy saving ones and nagging the kids to TURN THE
BLOODY LIGHTS OFF! every ten minutes or so.



--
Warning: Do not look directly into laser with remaining eye.

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Christian McArdle" writes:

The power supply needs some headroom so that the computer doesn't conk

out

when working hard. Think of it like a car engine. Just because you have a
150PS diesel, doesn't mean that you're going to be using anywhere near

that

pottling about town. To use anything remotely like that you'd need to be
playing 3D computer games, which give the graphics card and processor a

good

Even with that, you'd struggle to hit 150W.

I wouldn't be so sure. I once upgraded my computer to a more recent
motherboard but didn't bother upgrading the ATX power supply, which was only
185W. Despite only having one hard disc and quite modest graphics (GeForce
2MX/Athlon XP 2400+), it would often cut out when doing hard graphical work,
or after about 10 seconds of disc access. Replacing the power supply with a
350W fixed it. So when it does hard work, the peak current draw can get
quite high.


My dual 2.8GHz Xeon at work idles at 200W and peaks at 310W
When fully loading both CPUs and thrashing both disks.

You'd be amazed at the power some graphics cards can consume these days.
Many requiring a dedicated PSU connector as the AGP/PCI bus can't
supply the current it requires. I've got one such (few years old) and
there's plenty of cases of people having stability problems using PSUs
350W. I have something like 200W in mine (small form factor PC), but
it's a good PSU - maybe the cheaper ones are just more dodgy.

D

Geoffrey wrote:
Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.

On those figures you are still paying way too much.

MBQ

On 20 Dec 2005 07:29:13 -0800, wrote this (or
the missive included this):


Geoffrey wrote:
Perhaps this will make you feel better....

On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.

Peanuts

We pay (currently) £92 a *month* which has just been reduced from
£125. Currently they owe us about a grand that has accumulated over
the past 18 months - handy as that'll pay the next installment of
tuition fees/accomodation.


18 x £125 = £2250. So you actually used £1250 of electricity or
£70/month. You are still paying way over the odds. Don't let them
bully you into making these payments, you can always change supplier.

If any of you guys are over 50, check out Swalec Easywarm.

I cut my combined Gas/Electricity bills by 50%, and I can use as much
power as I like. Standard monthly charge of £58.

All my neighbours are on it.



--
®óñ© © ² * ¹°°³ -¹

On 2005-12-20, Blair wrote:

"Peter Lynch" wrote in message
...
On 2005-12-19, Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps.
Just because the PSU can supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a
huge amount less.

The little plug-in unit I got from Maplin that measures power consumption
through a mains socket shows my computers are currently using 670 VA
That's for 3 PC style computers (1 dual-processor), 2 monitors and a few
other odds 'n' sods like an inkjet printer, broadband etc.
If you want to know where all your power is going, I'd recommend spending
12.49 on a L61QAQ

Pete

I am interested in obtaining this measuring device but would like to know
how it is used and how much information I can get.
Looking at the picture of the device I have assumed it plugs into a socket
any where on the circuit and you then plug in the item you want to check.
The reading will then be for this item only when it is operational
Then carry this out for every piece of electrical equipment.
Am I right in this assumption?
Blair

exactly


--
.................................................. .........................
.. never trust a man who, when left alone ...... Pete Lynch .
.. in a room with a tea cosy ...... Marlow, England .
.. doesn't try it on (Billy Connolly) .....................................

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:19:17 +0000, Ron Clark wrote:


If any of you guys are over 50, check out Swalec Easywarm.

I cut my combined Gas/Electricity bills by 50%, and I can use as much
power as I like. Standard monthly charge of £58.

All my neighbours are on it.

Nothing on the Swalec website about it. Got a link?

--
Warning: Do not look directly into laser with remaining eye.

In message , John Cartmell
writes
In article , raden wrote:
In message , John Cartmell
writes
In article , "Pet @
www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬)" wrote:
Sadly wrote:

I suppose the computers probably use about 300W each.

for about 5% of their working life perhaps. Just because the PSU can
supply 300 W it will normally be supplying a huge amount less.

I have one here that uses a power supply outputting DC 5V 4A. OK most of
that power isn't used unless you populate all four of the USB ports.

Then it's not outputting 4A, is it ?

Sorry. The (external) power supply for the computer is described as:
Input: 100-240V~: 50Hz-60Hz: 0.6A
Output: DC 5V = 4A

Which is what it is the maximum current it is spec'd to deliver

not what its delivering when the load is less


--
geoff

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
...
I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high.
(snip)

electric shower (8.5 kw) no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

20 x 15 minutes a week for a year is 13,520 kWh. At 8p per unit, that makes
175 pounds a year. This leaves 225 for the rest of the house, which is quite
good.

Do you have a gas fired hot water system? If so, consider replacing your
inefficient electric shower with a decent mixer (with pump if necessary).
You will get a much more powerful shower that uses less energy.

I think you have the right answer.


--

Michael Chare

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:19:17 +0000, Ron Clark wrote:

If any of you guys are over 50, check out Swalec Easywarm.

I cut my combined Gas/Electricity bills by 50%, and I can use as
much power as I like. Standard monthly charge of £58.

A flat rate, use as much as you want, no penalties?

Sounds a rip off 25units/day (we use less than that), 31 days/month
(average month is 30.5 days) 7p/unit (we pay less than that) is still
only £54.25. I guess if you are using a lot of power for space heating
you might benefit in the winter but what about the summer?

And so much for energy conservation...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:08:31 GMT, Geoffrey
wrote this (or the missive included this):

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:19:17 +0000, Ron Clark wrote:


If any of you guys are over 50, check out Swalec Easywarm.

I cut my combined Gas/Electricity bills by 50%, and I can use as much
power as I like. Standard monthly charge of £58.

All my neighbours are on it.

Nothing on the Swalec website about it. Got a link?


SWALEC Easy Warm Scheme:

Paul Thomas on 01639 870178 or 07767 850931

(I am given to understand that this scheme is NOT limited
to Wales)

Good luck

--
®óñ© © ² * ¹°°³ -¹

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 10:07:49 -0000, PhilC wrote:

"tarquinlinbin" wrote in message
...
On 19 Dec 2005 08:29:22 -0800, "alanjones"
wrote:

I presently pay £100 per quarter for electricty which I find pretty
high. At home we have 2 computers one of which is on most of the time.
3 TV's 1 always on in the evenings, 1 fridge/freezer, dishwasher (no
longer used), washing machine used every second day (40 degree
setting), microwave/combination oven used every second day for half an
hour, lighting is mostly energy saving bulbs, electric shower (8.5 kw)
no more than 20 x 15 mins a week,

Put some of those blank plug plates in all the un-used plug holes as
electricty may be leaking out and spilling onto the floor.



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

http://www.no2id.org/

LOL
Perhaps you may have experienced this - when in digs many years ago the
landlady thought that when the electric was turned on to her garage/shed you
had to wait for it to arrive at garage/shed.


Well you do, but its is only nanoseconds.

PhilC

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:16:24 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote this (or the missive included this):

I cut my combined Gas/Electricity bills by 50%, and I can use as
much power as I like. Standard monthly charge of £58.

A flat rate, use as much as you want, no penalties?

Sounds a rip off 25units/day (we use less than that), 31 days/month
(average month is 30.5 days) 7p/unit (we pay less than that) is still
only £54.25. I guess if you are using a lot of power for space heating
you might benefit in the winter but what about the summer?

I didn't say it would suit everybody. For various reasons we use a
fair bit of power, we were not with one of the highest charging
providers and we were using (and paying for) £118 monthly for
gas/electricity. Now it's, as I said, flat rate £58, no cap and no
penalties.

--
®óñ© © ² * ¹°°³ -¹

On 19 Dec 2005 08:54:01 -0800, "Sadly" wrote:



FFreezer, maybe 25W average.

Washing machine ~2kW (but not for long)

Oven, maybe 1.5kW average while on.

Say average lighting (when in use) 200W.

So, guessing at times:

Computers: (300W * 12) + (300W * 2) * 30 = 126kWh
TVs: (50W * 6) + (50W * 2) + (50W * 1) * 30 = 13.5kWh
FFreezer = (25W * 24) * 30 = 18kWh

Maybe you have underestimated the FF, a typical new grade A one uses
350 to 400kwh a year so ~30kwh per month. Some grade B American ones
are 800kwh per year.

I think some older ones with poor insulation leaking door seals and
ineficient compressors, the ones where the motor seems to be running
continualy, can use vastly more than 400kwh/year.

I read somewhere that refrigeration represents 37% of domestic
electricity consumption.