[TriLUG] Home PC power usage

[Bill Farrow]

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 9:11 AM,  <matt at noway2.thruhere.net> wrote:
> I've noticed that for every PC I leave running my electric bill will go up
> about $20 for the month.  That works out to be about 154 kilowatt hours at

As the instigator of this topic on the #trilug IRC channel I really
should chip in.

System
=======
My home media server in my living room runs mythtv frontend & backend
as well as xbmc and general file serving. It has an Intel Core2 Quad
CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz with 2 HDD. I have a kill-a-watt power meter
measuring the power usage of the whole system which includes the TV
and speakers. The computer runs 24/7.

* 225 Watts - TV On, System playing live TV
* 100 Watts - TV Off, System "idle"

Cost
======
Duke energy prices electricity at 9.3587 cents per kWh
  http://www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/NCScheduleRS.pdf

* 100 Watts running 24/7 should cost $82 per year.
* 154 Watts running 24/7 should cost $126 per year ($10/mo)

Future Investigation
===============
* Measure the power used by the cable modem, router, hdhomerun, switch, etc
* Measure the total house power at the external house meter by
counting the IR pulses from the meter. Push data to the cloud :-)


Bill