Computer Power Consumption

By Joshua Erdman
Digital Foundation, inc.

Recently we switched offices and our new rental agreement requires us to have our own power meter. Needless to say, it was a bit of a surprise to see the amount of our first electric bill. We did a comparison with one of our neighbors and we were paying twice as much in electric bills. Which was interesting since they use their Air Conditioning much more than we do.

So we decided to measure just how much power a computer consumes. Of course computers pull different levels of power depending on its processor specs, number of drives, and the state the computer is in: boot up, running idle, or at 100% CPU utilization, our test would look into all three of these scenarios.

Our test computer was a Pentium III 800MHz with 512MB RAM. To get a consumption reading we used an inductive ammeter. Here were the results:

	Amps	Watts
At Idle	.475	57
On Boot-up	.625	75
100% CPU	.625	75

From these numbers and looking at our power bill, a PC typically costs $20 per month to use.

Read up on the Guide to Choosing a UPS for a product review.

Article last reviewed: 11/05/2005

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Created by: Digital Foundation, inc.

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