300W vs 450W powersupply (Electricity bill)

[IceBlitz]

I have recently upgraded my powersupply from 300W to 450

I have Athlon 1800+ oc/1900+
3 hard drives
and
2 CD-rom drives
1 Radeon 8500 card
1 SBlive
1 controller card
1 network card

Now I just received electricty bill, which was at $90US (that's electricity alone). (I put computers on 24hours a day for about 20 days a month)

My father went angry, because his business has the electricy bill of around $80 for 5000sq furniture store.


Now that I have upgraded my power supply to 450...
Will the new ps consume 50% more power (compare to 300W), thus further increase the electricity bill?? (this suck!)

Should I get 200W powersuppy and make a small server or something?
Coz I need to run my computer all night to d/l, upload.
(KaZaA, Morpheus, personal data sharing with MSN...etc.)
I'm should bring back dad's P166 or something...

[rusty c]

Better look for something else. Your computer is not using much of that $90.

[GB_Cobber]

The larger power supply simply has a larger capacity. You only use as much as the PC needs. If the rig needs 200w it will still only use 200w. It wont use more power becuase of a bigger PSU.

[Gorn]

Ya tell your dad he has problems somewhere else. Assuming you maxxed out both Power supplies that would be equal to 2 light bulbs. Fact is the coil in the 450 may require a little more juice to power up but its the stuff inside your PC that uses the power. If the 300 was stressed out to the max it may not have been running well and may have infacted use more then the 450. Chances are you increased to computer usage of juice by 5%

[Demon Worship]

The power supply only converts the 120VAC line power to DC Voltages required to power your computer. But, it doesn't push 450 Watts out. It's only rated to handle 450W of load. The load (everthing using power in your comp')pulls only what it demands. So it's economical to buy only the biggest power supply needed, since a bigger supply would cost more and not be used beyond what your comp' required from it.

-= Most power supplies are grossly over-rated anyway. If you tried to put a 450W load on it, my guess is it would smoke. Power supplies have a limited amount of smoke inside. When you let out all the smoke they don't work anymore. =-

A quality power supply guarentees more trustworthy load ratings and better quality of output DC signal voltages. Cheap supplies or ones not large enough to handle the loads put on them will cause crashes and stability problems.

For Hypothetical the calculations would follow:

Item........................................................ => Computer
Power in Watts (W)....................................=> 450
Power in Kilowatts = (kw) W ÷ 1000 = kW.....=> .45
Hours Used Per Day =.................................=> 24
Power Per Day kW x h = kWh/day.................=> 10.8
Cost Per Day = kWh x Rate($0.07)=cost/day...=> .756
Cost Per Month = cost/day x 30 =.................=> 22.68

See...At full load (450W) it costs 75 cents per day (24h).
7 cents per kwh is what it costs in my area for electricity.
A whole month would only cost around $22.
My guess is a real amount closer to $15 for a month.

[richardginn]

good post demon.

I would easily say going to a 450 watt PSU is going to cost more per month, but the cost will be like only a buck or 2.

[homerj31]

Originally posted by richardginn
good post demon.

I would easily say going to a 450 watt PSU is going to cost more per month, but the cost will be like only a buck or 2.

To save a buck or two, just use 10-10-220 then 1 then the number. Your money problems are solved

[talldude]

I think it is your lights. Shut off all your lights during the day and put your blinds up...that will easily save you like $30-40 in electricity per month.

[deeznuts]

yeah, i've heard it only costs around $6-10 a month to leave it on 24/7 everyday of that month. but of course you might use it more since the number above is average. still not a major amount. maybe you guys need to check elsewhere, as in lights if you use computer late at night, etc. does your pops have a TV in his room?

[IceBlitz]

So, I won't be getting like $120 electricity bill?
Thank god...

My father's eyes went crazy when he heard my PSU became 450W...
I thought I was dying...
(He has black belt in Taekwondo)


Maybe I should tell him what Demon said.
Thnx everyone, maybe my pa will listen... and stop poking on me.

[tu2thepoo]

Originally posted by IceBlitz
(I put computers on 24hours a day for about 20 days a month)

you could try just turning the computer off and doing something else. that'll affect your electricity bill more than a PSU ever could

[Ashpool]

Originally posted by IceBlitz
I have Athlon 1800+ oc/1900+
3 hard drives
and
2 CD-rom drives
1 Radeon 8500 card
1 SBlive
1 controller card
1 network card

Unless you're 300W is a terrible generic build, buying that 450W was a bit of a waste. You're rig would suck up about ~250 Watts at best.

Of course, that includes a bit of exaggeration on the processor and drives.

[joerg]

I would look nto something like your heater or refrigerator or maybe your stove if you use it more everyday or close to that. Also monitors take about 150 watts or more and tvs take even more than that. A refrigerator is usually the biggest electricity consumer in you home other than a AC or a dryer. Most refrigerators take around 1100 watts. And a dryer can exceed 2000 in some cases. Even a curling iron is 1000 but alot of these things are not used that much. My advice would be to leave your monitors off and just be allittle more carefull with other things. My dad acts the same way until i went through and showed him what a kilowatt hour and stuff like that means.

[Isezumi]

Yeah daddy needs to flip a little less about stuff like that.

YOur computer might be using the same amoung of juice as 4 60 watt bulbs. YOu can save more juice by turning your printer off when not in use and killing your monitor when you are not sitting in front of it.

I can think of a list of things that one can do, and so can your local power company. I am sure that if you walked around for a day, you would find that your dad is more wasteful about power then you are.