How much does it cost to run, then
| Electrical appliance | Power-draw (watts) | Cost per year (low-usage) | Cost per year (mid-usage) | Cost per year (high-usage) | Cost per year (Max-usage, 24/7) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony 46W4500 46in, 1080p LCD TV (shop setting) | 237 | £21.07 |
£50.57 |
£88.49 |
£235.98 |
| Sony 46W4500 46in, 1080p LCD TV (calibrated setting) | 133 | £11.82 |
£28.368 |
£49.64 |
£132.38 |
| Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player |
16 |
£1.42 |
£3.41 |
£5.96 |
£15.90 |
| Sky HD+ box |
28 |
£2.49 |
£5.98 |
£10.46 |
£27.89 |
| Denon DM35DAB micro system |
36 |
£3.20 |
£7.68 |
£13.44 |
£35.84 |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 Falcon (Fallout 3) | 114 |
£10.14 |
£24.33 |
£42.59 |
£113.57 |
| Dell XPS M1330 laptop (charging, full power) |
66 |
£5.87 |
£14.09 |
£24.65 |
£65.74 |
| MSI PR211 laptop (charging, full power) |
74 |
£6.58 |
£15.79 |
£27.37 |
£73.70 |
| Intel
Core 2 Duo PC (idle) |
190 |
£16.90 |
£40.56 |
£70.98 |
£189.28 |
| Intel
Core 2 Duo PC (3D load) |
288 |
£25.60 |
£61.44 |
£107.52 |
£286.82 |
| Dell
3007WFP-HC monitor |
142 |
£12.63 |
£30.31 |
£53.04 |
£141.46 |
| Dell 2405FPW |
88 |
£7.82 |
£18.77 |
£32.84 |
£87.58 |
| Toshiba external 320GB drive |
12 |
£1.07 |
£2.57 |
£4.49 |
£11.97 |
| HP 6310 all-in-one fax |
14 |
£1.24 |
£2.98 |
£5.21 |
£13.89 |
| Creative I-Trigue 3200 speakers |
12 |
£1.07 |
£2.57 |
£4.49 |
£11.97 |
| Hotpoint larder fridge |
35 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
£34.86* |
| Hotpoint larder freezer |
38 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
£37.84* |
The list isn't anywhere near exhaustive of course, but should give you an idea into some of the costs involved in running electrical devices.
* these were run for 30 minutes before taking measurement.
Analysis
Remember, low-usage consumption refers to having the appliance working 15 hours a week, mid-usage to 36 hours a week, high to 63 hours, and, obviously, max to 168 hours - 24/7.The first surprising aspect is just how much of a difference you, the user, can make when running a variable-wattage piece of equipment such as an LCD TV.
For example, straight of the box, the Sony 46W4500 TV, a tasty bit of kit, churns through almost 240W, because Sony sets up the 'shop' parameter to have a backlight brightness of 10/10. Reducing this to, say, four, which is perfectly adequate, and tweaking other settings saves you over 100W. Based on a high-usage pattern, that equates to almost £40 per year. Every little helps.
The standalone Sony Blu-ray player is frugal, and the Sky HD+ box has an auto-standby function that will reduce power, but even it will rip through almost £30 of 'leccy if left on 24/7. It doesn't sound like much in isolation, but begins to add up, rather quickly, when running for over 4,000 hours per year.
Gaming addicts may want to take a note of the Xbox 360 figure, observed whilst playing Fallout 3. Play a lot and it will cost you (or your parents) over £40 per year, too.
Killing me softly
The real killers are PCs, obviously, because they're usually switched on for multiple hours and consume a generous amount of watts in the process. I primarily work from home, so have the Core 2 Duo PC and Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor switched on for around 60 hours a week. The scary thing is that it costs me around £120 a year when the PC's idling. Time to remove some components, me thinks. Boss, I'll be working on my laptop and saving myself around £100 per year.
Exacerbating matters, should you run multiple PCs the cost quickly spirals out of control. Run five high-specification machines on a 24/7 basis for distributed computing, a worthwhile cause, and you may face a leccy bill of close to £1,000 p.a. alone. Thinking about it, a super-high-end PC, including monitor, pulling 1kW under load, running 24/7, would cost around £1,000 in just juice. You can clearly see why data-centres are now built with power and cheapness-of-electricity in mind.
The obvious things to do
The table shows why paying attention power-draw is so important, as sensible, informed choices could save you significant money over the long run. Purchase an 80 PLUS PSU on your next round of upgrading, change that CPU to an energy-efficient model and ditch the high-end card, bought for form's sake, and replace it with a mid-range model, for example.
Switch off appliances that aren't used, think seriously about the total cost of ownership, over a number of years, rather than just the up-front outlay.
Invest in a cheap-ish watt-meter, or go for an extra layer of sophistication with something like the Eco-eye - they'll pay for themselves pretty quickly, I'd imagine.
Anyone had horrendous bills after running a computing farm? Who has had the biggest bill. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
