Digging Into the Electrical Cost of PC Gaming 162
New submitter MBAFK writes "My coworker Geoff and I have been taking power meters home to see what the true cost of PC gaming is. Not just the outlay for hardware and software, but what the day-to-day costs really are. If you assume a 20 hour a week habit, and using $0.11 a KWH, actually playing costs Geoff $30.83 a year. If Geoff turns his PC off when he is not using it, he could save $66 a year."
PC gaming? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:PC gaming? (Score:5, Informative)
Running PC games can easily take 300-500W with a high-end graphics card. Posting on Facebook probably uses 30-50W on a modern desktop PC (plus whatever the monitor uses in both cases).
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
i can't play video games anymore since i'm running a bitcoint mining operation with my graphics card. it's pretty expensive to run.
Re:PC gaming? (Score:4, Funny)
Sure you can still play. You just feed in quarters at double or triple the rate of the rest of us.
Re: (Score:2)
I actually looked at this when I had the power meter out. To play Spider Solitaire is about 102 watts on the same machine that needed 157 to play Dawn of War 2. That machine idles at 100 watts.
Re: (Score:2)
It really would have been helpful to know what hardware you tested on. I get that the CPU and GPU both likely downclocked when idle but Does it have a HD that spins slower (WD greendrive and friends) when not in use? Does it have an SSD card? What monitor did it have? Was it an LED backlight or one of the older ones that use more power?
I also can't imagine anyone not setting their monitor to power off when idle.
Re: (Score:2)
I play computer games once in a while so I still need those high end cards (not SLI/Crossfire). I really wished there was a way to make those video cards to act low power used by idling most of its features when not needed. Sure, I can swap the hardwares, but that's annoying.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So I'm sorry friend but there really isn't a point in ePeen cards unless you are just going for bragging rights or are doing serious GPGPU work because the games just ain't stressing the systems that hard.
This page [tomshardware.com] has benchmarks for that card with modern games. The 4850 seems to average 30-40 fps in most games at 1680*1050 (Crysis 2 was worse), the benchmarks there don't show a minimum (which is usually about half the average). That's a bit crappy.
I run at 1920*1200, and thinking about getting one of
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually typical modern desktop uses more like 60-150 W while browsing.
Only if it's a Phenom or has a discrete graphics card. My Athlon X2 uses about 50W when CPU usage is low, as does my i5 (both using integrated GPUs).
Re: (Score:2)
Actual data that I've taken from my home server:
Idle: 53W.
One core at 100%: 73W
Both cores at 100%: 93W
These are measured at the AC plug.
I didn't measure differentials for optical disc activity (DVD burner was idle when testing) or for high levels of disc activity (disc was spinning, but not being actively used during testing) but the thing that stands out to me is that the background power usage of this machine is larger than the differential caused by CPU utilization.
I also can't help but notice that CPU c
Re: (Score:3)
cheap-ass Optiarc DVD burner (don't get one, seriously)
Optiarc is a coalition of Sony and NEC and is generally a high-quality brand.
Re: (Score:2)
The two I snagged must have been a lemon model, then. The Sony that is in my wife's computer is rock-solid.
Re:PC gaming? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
You have to be running Linux to see the -1 Snobbery option.
I guess I shouldn't have told you that...
Re: (Score:2)
Many PC's are power pigs but they don't need to be (Score:2)
I've got a desktop which runs in the 30's for wattage while doing low CPU consuming tasks like browsing, and never reaches 70 even at full load, and gets down to the high 20's when completely idle.
Re:PC gaming? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, but the article was specifically about saving money by turning your computer off when you're not using it.
A high-end gaming GPU might use 50-100W when rendering the desktop. Integrated graphics... don't.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:PC gaming? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sleep on a modern machine is pretty damn good. On my main gaming PC if you turn off the monitor and sleep the system it uses 3.18 watts. If you turn the machine off rather than sleep you use 2.92 watts.
Re: (Score:2)
Turning off machine still uses power? Geez, unplug it! That is what I do when I don't use it. Same for other electronics.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, a high-end gaming system is going to draw more power even when idle than a crappy underpowered and outdated system (like my mom's)
Current generation of video cards, even the high end, draw maybe 2-3 watts when idle. The Ivy Bridge CPUs are 77 Watt TDP rated and idle they consume peanuts. With a good PSU and SSD, I seriously doubt these systems will draw more power idle than a crappy outdated system.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd wager they'll draw far less - the demand for long battery life in the mobile space has made its way into desktop hardware. It's amazing what the engineers can come up with when they actually try to reduce power consumption. Today's crappy outdated system might have been a high-spec machine five years ago; unfortunately, that was near the peak of our "throw more electricity at the problem" phase in hardware design (Prescott, anyone?).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If your mother only uses her computer for Facebook and Turbotax but draws 100W while idle, then your mother needs building advice. Nudge her into moving to Ivy Bridge Core i3 (and use the integrated graphics; don't add graphics card) when they come out in a couple months.
(Actually if that's all she does, maybe even an Atom or Bobcat system will be enough, but in 2012 I don't recommend going that way.)
Re: (Score:2)
So spend $500 on a new PC to save $40/year on electricity?
Re:PC gaming? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah every now and then Slashdot has these silly articles about PC power consumption, "kill a watt" etc.
The power consumption of modern PCs (post P4) has gone down to a level where most home users would usually be better off looking for savings in other areas. Driving more efficiently, not using as much cooling/heating (and making it more efficient - insulation, sealing etc).
As for gaming, sure a high powered gaming rig will use a few hundred watts (and usually less if you're not doing SLI). But that's far from the most energy hungry way of having fun. Your hobby could be drag racing, or hiking/rock climbing somewhere that requires a 1 hour drive, or even baking cakes. FWIW even cycling and other sports might be more energy hungry if you replace the calories burnt by eating more of stuff that requires a fair bit of energy to produce ( e.g. US corn fed beef).
From various sources:
1 pound of beef = 13-15 pounds of CO2 ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-04-21-carbon-diet_N.htm [usatoday.com] )
1 kWh = 2.3 pounds of CO2 ( http://cdiac.ornl.gov/pns/faq.html [ornl.gov] )
so 1 pound of beef = 5.6-6.5kWh
So if all that exercise makes you eat an additional half pound of beef (400kcal), that's about the equivalent of running a 300W gaming rig + monitor for 9 to 10 hours.
In contrast 1 pound of chicken = 1.1 pounds of CO2.
I've even seen many people here who say they still prefer to use incandescent lighting. It doesn't take that many bulbs to use as much as a gaming rig, even fewer for a facebook/browsing PC/notebook. A single fluorescent tube lamp uses about 40W already.
Re: (Score:2)
I've even seen many people here who say they still prefer to use incandescent lighting. It doesn't take that many bulbs to use as much as a gaming rig, even fewer for a facebook/browsing PC/notebook.
People who refuse to use CFLs because "the color's not right*" or "it takes too long to start up" aren't the kind of folks who are worried about electric bills or global warming. Also, the flourescents are far cooler, so your AC costs drop with them.
* That "the color looks wrong" is scientifically incorrect. You
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah every now and then Slashdot has these silly articles about PC power consumption, "kill a watt" etc.
Still, a lot of people still haven't got the message "If you turn shit off when you're not using it, your power bills go down". That seemed to be the overriding message behind the summary. This goes for a lot of things, TV, aircon/heater, lights and what not. The only device I have on 24/7 in my house is the fridge. Some people are actually surprised I don't have a A$1000 per quarter power bill (I pay about A$80-120 per quarter at A$0.22 ish per KW).
If I do have a PC on for a download or something, I use
Re: (Score:2)
All depends where you live, electricity prices seem to vary massively across america and presumablly even more arround the world.
Further complicating matters your local climate, building design and heating or cooling systems affect the real cost of indoor electricity usage for you. If you live in a cold climate and use resistive electric heating then running your computers is effectively free because it just displaces heating. OTOH if you live in a hot climate where you are running aircon all the time then
Re: (Score:2)
why not grab a kindle fire show her how to use it and realize it uses less TEI (total environmental impact) for way less than said $500 system (though i3s sell at walmart for roughly $375) if she can handle a bw eink the DX has unsurpased screen size and lifetime 3g for whispernet, though it costs you as much as a wal mart pc, and unlike the fire is not in color (yet, color eink has been POCed) i've heard that rooted kindle last 8 hours a charge, and if left unrooted last 1-2 months with wifi/3g disabled r
Re: (Score:2)
Kill-a-watt meter (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a very similar problem to OP's situation since Bitcoin mining and gaming both use high performance video cards.
Re: (Score:2)
I bought a kill-a-watt meter a while back when I started dabbling in Bitcoin mining and it was a real eye-opener.
It's a very similar problem to OP's situation since Bitcoin mining and gaming both use high performance video cards.
You can't say that and leave us hanging - did it cost more in electricity than you gained by mining bitcoins?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Back when BTC were above $8, and you were using modern Radeon cards, it was roughly break even. Now if this is in a room that needed to be air conditioned, I would ballpark triple the energy costs. I decided it wasn't worth it unless it was the winter.
Re: (Score:2)
A/Cs have an efficiency of about 3 (3 watts of cooling for every watt of electricity), so you need only add about 30% to the figure when adding in A/C.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I ran a kill-a-watt test recently. It costs about $5.50/month to run the PC idle, $13.50 a month to run a miner with an ASUS EAH6850 graphics card. I mine at about 230 Mhash/sec which makes about $22.63/month at current difficulty and exchange rate.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Components (Score:4, Interesting)
What about switching out power hungry gaming cards for newer, more efficient cards? This year's mid-end model may have comparable performance to last year's mid-high end model but might draw half the power. Over time, the lower power consumption adds up, not to mention you can get by with a smaller power supply. Likewise, trading in your hard drives for a solid state drive (maybe using a green HDD for extra storage)? And for old timers, switching out CRTs for LCDs? Overall, I think it'd be easier for people to upgrade to more energy efficient components than it would be for them to change their PC usage habits. Lowering the sleep/HDD shutoff/monitor shutoff timers can make a big difference too without having to remember to shut down your PC every day or waiting for it to reboot. Not an option for everyone, but gamers usually aren't on a shoe-string budget or else they wouldn't be able to afford the PC and the games in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
..you'd be playing for couple of years to justify the cost of upgrading just for that reason.
the whole debate is stupid, time spent (presumably happily) / money for electricity ratio is pretty much nothing if compared to just about any hobby, hell, even just buying sneakers is more expensive per year.
not to mention the energy costs acquired when the equipment was made.
just buy a phone and play with it? uses much less energy. the games suck though.
Re:Components (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This doesn't work for the same reason that virtualization rarely yields absolute savings. Instead of "doing the same with less", the pointy heads see all this newly-freed up hardware and decide to re-use it. You end up "doing even more with the same". So your costs-per-work-unit go down, but your absolute costs stay the same (or go up once virtualization costs are factored in).
The same goes for people buying hardware. We rarely say "oh, I can buy this computer that has A) the same performance and B) bet
Re: (Score:2)
It really depends on the situation. For example, I build packages for my open source project. The computer science department donated 20 machines for use in a cluster while I was there. I could build around 2000 packages in 10 days. After I left the university, I had to do it with my own computing equipment. Today, I can build the same software in about 2 days with my desktop computer. If I were paying for electricity use to run 20 Dell optiplex systems with pentium 4 1.7Ghz-2.0Ghz + IDE disks to the
Re: (Score:2)
I ran an 8800GTX until it died, but it was around 6 months ago and I decided I needed an upgrade (before it failed). If I had gone ahead with the upgrade, I would have paid £100 for the card, and another for a 1kW PSU to handle the draw. Those
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I was referring to regular upgrades you might do anyway. For example, the Radeon HD 7850 (this year's mid-end model) and the 6950 (last year's mid-high end model) have comparable performance, but the 7850 draws about 2/3rds the power or less depending on benchmarks. The 6950 sells for less, but the power consumption may make the total cost of ownership similar to or greater than the 7850.
Re: (Score:2)
For that reason alone, the only real choice is between suspend-to-RAM and suspend-to-disk. With your contemporary soft-off PSU burning a few w
Turning off something saves money? Really? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Significant? $5.50 a month is hardly "significant".
Nor is the $30-and-change per year cost of gaming "significant"
Re: (Score:2)
Significant? $5.50 a month is hardly "significant".
Nor is the $30-and-change per year cost of gaming "significant"
Especially when you factor in that the gaming will keep you away from other hobbies that might be more expensive. Such as: RC airplanes/cars, porn, collecting items, cars, girls (plus you don't need to worry about having kids, which cost even more money!), along with many other things.
Re: (Score:2)
sleeping your computer is great, they resume so fast.
Another advantage (in Windows, Linux doesn't have this problem) is that when you boot the machine, you have to restart every application. I don't mind booting my Linux box, but I HATE booting Windows. Ironically, I almost never have to boot the Linux box but am forced by its updates to boot the Windows box.
Re: (Score:2)
I have always seen these types of problems with the so-called "hibernate" or "sleep" modes. I always disable this feature the first chance I get. The ridiculous amount of time required for the rebooting process hasn't improved much since Windows 3.1. The more software you use on a daily basis the worse your problem gets. Let's say to like to keep track of your schedule with a PC based organizer. If during any particular weekend day you only need to update your schedule four different times and random i
Re: (Score:2)
My laptop (Sony Vaio Z) cold boots into Windows 7 in ~9 seconds (fresh install of Windows 7 minus crapware helps a lot). But to be honest I keep my laptop on 24/7 when it's on AC power and use sleep mode whenever I pack it up to bring it somewhere else. I seldom if ever turn it off.
Re: (Score:2)
I think a lot depends on how fast the DHCP server assigns the computer an address when it wakes up and requests one. At home it's nearly instant, but at work it can take something like 15 seconds to obtain an address, meanwhile things that depend on network connectivity start freaking out.
Hey Geoff.. (Score:2)
Now do a calculation of how much of your employer's time you wasted doing your calculation!
If you make all the bad assumptions the RIAA makes, I bet you can make it hit a cool million, easy!
True costs (Score:2)
C3 (Score:2)
I would suspect C3 sleep states are supported on a majority of systems by now. Perhaps I was just lucky when I picked up the hackintosh board a few years ago. Now, I simply use a reasonably long idle timer and the system goes to sleep/power off. It takes a few seconds to come back out of that state and wholly beats a cold start.
I guestimate my home system gets about 3-4 hours of usage each day during the weekday. In addition, there are plenty of other device around the house which support other core service
Peanutes, really. (Score:3)
All in all, that is really peanuts in terms of electicity bills. If you are spending roughly 2 hours a day gaming, a normal person with a full-time job and a family would have very little time to do much else that can sink money.
Considering that yearly electricty bills routinely reach about a $1000+ for a standard household [eia.gov], this added 10% due to gaming is pretty insignificant when compared to other hobbies...like racing cars for example.
Sure, there may be cheaper hobbies, but I honestly don't think anyone well-settled enough to be practising a daily hobby and deriving enjoyment from it finds it a problem to spend 8 bucks 50 cents a month for their recreation.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In case you hadn't figured it out, some governments subsidize suburbs as part of national policy. Originally it probably was for the following reasons:
1. Keep economy going full steam. New houses, people need stuff for houses.
2. Prevent urban unrest. After seeing Paris, will they want to go back to the tenements? There had been social unrest after wars before, with returning soldiers returning to lives that were economically worse than army pay. The government knew this.
3. To delay racial tensions from
$100 a year huh? (Score:2)
As compared to...? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure what exactly the article is trying to convey here, as measuring electrical consumption is merely fine-tuning an existing expense related to a hobby, and an obscenely small amount of money being measured at that (c'mon, ~$30/year? People who will spend twice that much in a month on caffeine just to play said hobby).
Compare playing video games to spending money on cable TV. Or going to the movies. Or riding a bike outside. Discussing literally pennies of electrical savings per day seems rather pointless when you're spending considerably more to sustain that kind of hobby in the first place.
why do all such examples use the cheapest rates? (Score:2)
As of my last month's bill I am paying 28.8 cents per kWh. I'm not sure how much power my computer uses, but with my Nvidia GTX280 and an overclocked 4 Ghz dual core CPU I would assume at least 400 watts. Particularly while playing a game. So let's say 12 hours for a day of gaming. So 4.8 kWh or $1.38 per day of marathon gaming. If you assume 4 days per week that would be $22.12 per month or $265.42. Of course my computer may actually use 500 or 600 watts while gaming. What interests me more is how much pow
another suggestion (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A fan uses a handful of watts. Literally. But your graphics card can easily pull hundreds of watts.
A fan, dirty or not, is the least of your worries power-wise. Most storage devices take more than they do.
Again - yet another case of worrying about minor pittances when you're pulling kilowatts from your house heating / air conditioning for hours on end.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, there is the cost of dead components from heat-related deaths, both in terms of your pocketbook and to the environment. Of course, by turning the PC off when you're not using it helps keep it from getting clogged up with dust so fast.
Amdahl Shrugged (Score:3)
The wall warts (AC adapters) scattered about your house almost certainly use and waste more electricity than your PC. The US EPA guesstimated in 2005 that around 200 gigawatts (6% of US total power) goes through these things, and a significant portion of that (30 - 50%) is wasted.
See http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2005/3/1/Efficiency-Standards-for-AC-Adapters/ [buildinggreen.com] Getting all your wall warts onto centrally controlled power strips would seem like an interesting and money-saving challenge. If anyone has done that, I'd love to hear about it.
NEWSFLASH (Score:2)
Turning off your computer saves electricity!
I mean seriously, wtf.
Reality sucks, eh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone just moved out of his parents house and realized that electricity actually costs money. Spoiler alert, 40 minute long hot showers also costs a lot on the water and gas bills.
Its hilarious me when teens / early twenty-somethings leave the protected isolation of their parent's nest or university dorm and suddenly get a good ol' does of reality.
Re: (Score:2)
40 minute long hot showers also costs a lot on the water and gas bills.
In fact, heating water is one of the more expensive things in energy terms (water has quite a large thermal capacity, after all). A quick back-of-an-envelope calculation leads to the cost of a 40 minute shower as being somewhere in the region of 10-12 kWh. (Standard US shower flow rate is 2.5 gallons per minute, and assuming that you're looking to raise the water temperature by around 50F.)
not just that... (Score:2)
Not a fair comparison (Score:2)
To really figure the electrical cost of gaming, you have to figure out what else people would be doing if they weren't playing games. Some activities, like watching TV, would use as much or more power.
My guess is if we calculated the energy use of those other activities, gaming might be a net energy saving activity.
Power Computers are TCO expensive... (Score:2)
... too much expensive.
I used to use a old notebook for day-to-day computing. A Celeron M450, to be exact.
But the damn thing died, and I endup ressurrecting my Athlon XP 3.0G with an ATI HD 3850 to do the job.
(ok, I'm hearing a lot of laughs, but this machine was, a long time ago, a power computer! =P)
The crude fact is that my electric bill raised 25%. (sigh). In one year, this accumulated difference will be more than the market price of this computer.
Things could be worse, however. My "Media Center" is a A
A few LCD bulbs or CFLs pays for my gaming (Score:2)
I can pretty much find a bunch of equivalent expenditures and compensate in one manner or another.
If you want to see real money then figure the hours spent gaming instead being used towards a second income. That might make you wince.
Re:Money well spent (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Money well spent (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect you mean Market Economy Watts. The term market economy, which is being used in Economic "science"(term used very liberally here) is so far removed from reality, does not apply.
Negative spending (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are playing PC games the lights all over the house may be turned off. If you were not playing PC games then you might be moving around the house with the lights on. Likewise in winter your heating from the game is just heating your house. Even better it's heating the room you are in, so you can let the house be more cool. If you were not gaming perhaps you would be driving your car somewhere, like your girl friends house, and using gasoline. It could be that gaming saves you money over alternative activities in terms of electricity.
What do you _mean_ by "too high"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone always has a right to complain, but some people's complaints are silly and make me think they're idiots, or to put it nicely, their personality is generously infused with irony.
I can't say whether or not you're an idiot, though, because you merely said "too high" rather than explaining why you think your rates are "too high" -- you might have good reasons which expose corruption in your state's PRC, or you might have amazingly stupid and arrogant reasons, based on arbitrarily saying things without
Re: (Score:2)
He's comparing apples and oranges.
Let X be the cost of normal, non-gaming usage
X + $30.83 = cost of gaming 20 hours a week in addition to (or in place of?) normal usage
X - $66.66 = cost of non-gaming usage if you shut down the PC when not using it
But what is his time worth? If I value myself at the same rate my employer values me, then the startup time of my computer costs about 15 cents. I use the PC in the morning before work and in the evening after work and throughout the day on weekends, so that's 30 c
Re: (Score:2)
If you can't wait for it to boot you can sleep it. The difference between sleep and off is minimal on a modern machine.
Re: (Score:3)
As a ballpark, for most regions I find calculating the yearly cost of an item on 24/7 to be about $1/watt.
Rephrased, at 8.76 cents per kilowatt hour, one watt year costs about a buck per year. Plus or minus leap years and leap seconds. After endless add on taxes, and fees, and fees disguised as taxes, and taxes disguised as fees, that's probably about what I'm paying when I write a check.
Re: (Score:3)
Plus or minus leap years and leap seconds.
Probably less than the cost of the energy needed to calculate it.
Re:Power (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a 33 year old Sub Zero built-in refrigerator in my new house. It's so old that it has only one knob for temperature adjustment, and the refrigerator compartment on top is slave to the freezer setting. I've removed the cover to the compressor and coils to clean them, and I've found some indication that a service or two have been performed over the years, but compared to a friend's brand new LG unit that's had to be serviced twice in eight months and had cost them $1600 to purchase, I'm happy to use this fridge for the moment. Plus, a new built-in refrigerator will cost between $4000 and $8000 depending on what brand and features are chosen. This unit can run for a very, very long time for $4000 worth of electricity.
As for TVs, one doesn't necessarily have to use the fancy, big TV all of the time either. For many years I had a projector screen that could roll down in front of the entertainment center, blocking the 27" TV in it, so I could use my projector when I wanted to watch something of substance. Now, I have the projector in a different room from the TV we watch the news on, and we only use it when we actually want to watch a movie or some other thing where surround sound and a big image matter. Obviously the roll-down method won't work with a fixed TV, but putting the fancy home theatre TV into a different room would.
My current PC (an old Dual-Xeon box) has a hardware sleep switch that ties into some pins on the motherboard, and when pressed the computer drops down to a low power state. When I'm done using it I just put it to sleep, and when I want to use it again it comes back in about three seconds. Works well, keeps all of my programs running fine, and saves power.
There are lots of techniques that can be used to save power, but the biggest hogs in the house (HVAC, hot water heater, refrigerator, oven/range/cooktop) don't hold a candle to the consumer devices that everyone always panics about. If you want the most bang for your buck, insulate your house. Change your windows. Plant some trees that increase shade on the structure. Turn your thermostat up a couple of degrees and install some high efficiency ceiling fans to keep the air moving a little. Sure, turn off the electronics you're not using, but don't assume that it'll be earth-shattering on your power bills just by doing that.
Re: (Score:2)
Another place to save amazing amounts of power is lighting that tends to be left on.
I replaced some select lights with LEDs and save ~$108/mo
breakdown:
2 60 watt bulbs replaced with 13W LED
3 13W CFL replaced w/ 8W LED
6 40W incandescent replaced w/ 2.5W LED
several old florescents w/ magnetic ballast replaced w/ 21W LED strips
These are lights that tend to be left on courtesy of life with kids. I spent ~$1K on LEDs, it'll be paid off in under a year.
-nB
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've been installing only two brands of LED:
Phillips and Sylvania, both have long guarantees (based on a date stamp on the base) IIRC it's 5 and 7 years.
So far I have had one failure on a bulb that was installed over a year ago and when I went to submit an RMA I got a response back in one day confirming shipment of the replacement (a newer model too:) without me needing to do anything. (they take the serial # on the bulb).
I asked if they wanted it back to the e-mail and they said the first gen bulbs were n
Re: (Score:2)
That "paltry $100 a year in savings" would buy me nearly a year's supply of toilet paper. Good stuff, not the cheap garbage. The rest of your post is just stupidity personified for the sake of looking superior or clever, I can't tell which, nor do I care, since you fail at both, dumbass.
Re:Lame (Score:4, Interesting)
My home has on average 100 watts of power available. I can use more in the short term, but doing so depletes the battery and means I'll have to use much less for some part of the week. The wind turbine which is my sole source of power is rated at 750 watts, but only generates that much in absolutely perfect conditions. So I know quite a bit about how to use power economically. I can light my whole house effectively with just 18 watts of LEDs. They're strategically placed, yes - but you can easily read more or less everywhere.
In this situation, the graphics card on my computer (Radeon HD 6850 at 127 watts TDP) is actually the biggest power drain I've got. Obviously, my gaming is limited to two or three hours a day... Power is worth thinking about.
...and? (Score:2)
Seriously, you live in a very odd situation. While I'm not against conservation, and indeed I do turn my PC off when I'm not home because why use what isn't needed, you can't try and use your situation to apply to the population at large. 100 watts is NOT something I have to think about. My house has about 15,000 watts of power available to it at all times. 100 watts more or less is not noticeable and is well within the margin of error I get depending on how the AC is run.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I use gas for heat and the stove. Everything else is electricity, including the water heater. I have individual A/C units. Every bulb in the house, except for a handful of dimmable bulbs is CFL. My monthly bill, being in an expensive part of the country, is always within spitting distance of $200 and fairly consistent regardless of season. My gas bill, however, goes from roughly $120 in the winter to $30 in the summer.
A year or two ago I looked at energy consumption on most of my appliances and electronics.
Re: (Score:3)
What is the cost of your time?
Zero. It took me 3 months in intensive care to figure that out. Now my priorities are different, and I am actually happy.
Re: (Score:2)
and would likely be happier if you weren't!
There's nothing I can do about it. The fun thing about grieving is when you reach the "acceptance" stage, well, you accept it. Thinking about all the things I "could have done" leads absolutely nowhere except depression. On the other hand, there's a lot of things I can still do!
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to post but an AC beat me to it- with SSD I am much more likely to shut off my machine because it boots so quickly.