What is the computer's power consumption? Electricity consumption by computers of different power

Perhaps everyone is interested in the question: how much electricity does a computer consume? After all, many people have computers that work all day long and consume electricity during the entire operation. Let's look at the theory and the results of my measurements.

At work, I often have to connect computers, or rather, provide sockets in the project for connecting computers. Technologies give the power of one computer to connect 0.5 kW. According to TKP 45-4.04-149-2009, the power factor of computers is 0.65. With these values, the calculated current of one computer is 3.5 A. You can connect 5 computers to one group, on a 16 A circuit breaker, which is how I usually connected it.

3.5*5*0.8=14 A< 16А.

0.8 – demand coefficient, with the number of computers up to 5 inclusive.

In fact, the computer is not such a monster as technologists paint it

As I mentioned earlier, I bought myself a multimeter with a clamp meter. Now I can measure the current of any household appliance.

So how many watts does a computer consume?

1 At home I have an ASUS K53SM laptop.

After loading the operating system, the multimeter showed 0.1 A. While working in AutoCADe, listening to music and working in parallel in other applications, the current consumption did not exceed 0.15 A. The maximum short-term current was recorded at 0.3 A. Unfortunately, I did not I was able to check the current during games, because... I practically don’t play games, and the minesweeper doesn’t eat up a lot of resources

At the time of writing this article, the multimeter shows a value of 0.1-0.11 A. For calculation, let's take the average value of 0.14 A.

Р=220*0.14*0.65=20 W. This is the power that the electric meter calculates.

2 As soon as I moved to a new job, they bought me a new and quite powerful 4-core computer with an LCD monitor. In general, now almost everyone has such computers. After loading, the device showed 0.3 A. The average value during operation was 0.4 A. The maximum value that was recorded was 0.7 A. Even during calculations in the Dialux program, the current did not exceed 0.5 A.

Р=220*0.4*0.65=60 W.

Let's calculate how much electricity consumption we get per month.

Let the computer work around the clock.

Laptop: 20*24*30=14.4 kW/month.

Stationary computer: 60*24*30=43.2 kW/month.

Now let's theoretically calculate how many computers can be included in one group so that the circuit breaker (16 A) does not trip. In the calculation we will take 0.7 A/computer.

16/0.7=22 computers, i.e. in this case, our design solutions turned out to be 4 times overestimated.

During the experiments, one interesting feature was noticed. A switched-off laptop consumes 0.04 A from the network, which is about 6 W, even if you disconnect the cable from the laptop. Therefore, always unplug laptops, phone chargers and other electrical appliances. This will allow you to save energy.

Watch the video showing how much the candy bar actually consumes:

The question of preparing an article is not idle. There are devices that are constantly turned on in the apartment. If you have a computer at home, it works almost around the clock. And the question arises about cash costs. How can you find out how many watts your computer actually consumes over a certain period of time? You will get the most accurate calculation if you use the Power Metter device. The name reflects the purpose. This is a counter for energy consumption by electrical appliances, measured in watts and also shows how many rubles are spent per minute, hour, day, and so on.

If you are disappointed and are interested in a program for measuring PC consumption, then more about it at the end of the article.

Externally, Power Metter is a socket with a liquid crystal display. You can connect various devices (refrigerator, light bulb, laptop, etc.) through it and monitor energy consumption. The cost is not so high as to ignore the potential for efficient use of electricity.

There are many other features. Author of the channel “China G.” I tried to understand the device. Includes instructions in English. The device can calculate electricity consumption based on the tariff that the consumer independently indicates on the device. In the presented case, 1 kilowatt of electricity costs 2 rubles. 64 kopecks. To program this value, hold the button. We move using another button. The third indicates the value corresponding to the cost of 1 kilowatt of energy.

The first thing we see in the menu is the number of watts consumed and the price. For example, let’s first turn on not the computer, but the kettle. The device showed that the kettle consumes one kilowatt, 942 watts. Here we can see what the cost of operating an electrical appliance is for a certain amount of time. The next menu is kilowatt hours. Number of days. When the value reaches 24, the number of days is applied by one and the counter is reset to zero. That is, this is the time for which the load is connected. This value can be reset using the reset button. In addition to the indicated indicators, we can see the network voltage and frequency.
In addition to the current consumed by the load, we can also determine the power factor - the value of the reactive component cosine phi. For example, an electric kettle has a power factor of one. If a switching power supply is connected, this figure is 0.53. We can see the minimum consumption, the maximum.

The author of the review will try to turn on the personal computer. It consumes 145 watts. Loaded the video card. The cooler reached maximum speed. Power consumption 545 watts. If you are wondering how much money a PC or laptop costs, how much you have to pay for the operation of a computer, refrigerator and other device, buy this device. It will help you use energy more efficiently.

A program for determining the power consumed by a personal computer is called Power Supply Calculator. You will find it on the net.

Sometimes it happens that you need to find out how much electricity does a computer consume?. First of all, this is necessary in order to calculate what share of the bills your iron friend takes. Based on this, it is possible to increase the speed (overclocking) or decrease it to save electricity. This article will detail the energy consumption of its components point by point and provide recommendations regarding saving the family budget.

Computer energy consumption.

Ordinary users are unaware that the amount of energy consumed by a computer directly depends on its total power, or more precisely, on the sum of the powers of each component. The workload of the computer also plays an important role. An example can be given as follows: one of the latest games called also loads the video card more than ordinary work in Word. Increased load requires additional processing power from the processor and video card.

Sources of computer energy consumption.

Other connected devices

In order to calculate the amount of energy consumed by a computer due to the main component - the power supply, it is necessary to find out its maximum power that it is capable of passing through itself. If the components require more electricity than stated in the power supply specification, the computer automatically turns off. It follows that it is necessary to ensure that his needs are commensurate with his capabilities.

This block is most often located at the top of the computer case, so by opening its cover you can look at the numbers marked on it. As a rule, for ordinary desktop computers this value lies in the range of 450-750 Watts. Gaming power supply units are capable of reaching the 2000 Watt level. That is, the power supply alone, at maximum load, can “eat up” 2 kW per hour, and there are also other peripheral devices...

A monitor is an integral part of a stationary computer, so it cannot be classified as a peripheral device, unlike a printer, scanner, speakers - all of which you can do without.

So, how much electricity a monitor consumes depends on several factors: whether it is turned on or in standby mode; diagonal, and even brightness affects energy consumption - the figure ranges from 5 to 150 Watts.

Connected devices.

Each such device has a technical passport, which, among other things, indicates energy consumption. All that remains is to add the data to get the final figure.
Calculation of computer energy consumption.
The load on the power supply never reaches its peak, otherwise, as mentioned above, it would automatically turn off. Summing up all the components, multiplying by the operating time - this is exactly how many kilowatts the computer consumes.

Typically, the expense ranges from 400 (for office) to 800 (for gaming) rubles per month, respectively, about 4800-9600 thousand per year.

Almost every family has a personal computer. When buying it, they primarily look at performance, but no one thinks about how much electricity it consumes. The exact numbers depend on the specific system and when the components were manufactured. Modern devices consume significantly less energy even with much greater performance. However, gaming systems or older computers, especially if multiple graphics cards are used to compensate for the difference with modern models, can consume more than 100 kW per month, and sometimes significantly more. And this may make you think about saving.

Main consumers

To find out, we will figure out which elements are the most demanding. Note that the power for which the power supply is designed is not an indicator. It indicates the maximum at which the manufacturer recommends its use.

The processor, video card and monitor consume the most electricity. The rest of the system requires a modest amount of power. The amount consumed directly depends on the device itself and its performance.

For example, the latest generation i5 processor with 4 cores even under load consumes up to 140 watts, not to mention a modest 50 watts when idle. But older Intel Quad Cores can take over 200 Watts at peak load. It’s scary to say how much electricity a computer with old gaming video cards consumes.

The situation is the same with the video card and monitor. True, powerful video cards consume much more electricity than the processor. Monitor consumption will depend on screen brightness. Modern models require from 30 to 50 watts.

Consumption calculation

In order to find out how much electricity your computer consumes, you can make a calculation based on the system characteristics. To do this, you need to know what kind of monitor is used, what processor and video card are installed.

Knowing this data, you can see on the manufacturer’s website how much power is required for the components. Of course, the operation of the motherboard, RAM, and hard drive will also require some energy. This value is very low. For office machines it can be about 30 Watts, and for gaming systems with powerful cooling and an array of memory storage devices even up to 200 Watts.

High performance system

To calculate how much electricity a computer consumes, let's start with the monitor. Let's say we have a widescreen 34-inch monitor from LG, namely 34UC99-W with a huge resolution. The manufacturer provides information that such a screen requires 50 watts.

Next, we consider the video card. For example, we have a modern Geforce GTX 1080 Ti. Or even two. It is worth noting that, thanks to the efforts of the manufacturer and the new technical process, consumption remains very modest. 5 years ago a mid-level video card would have consumed the same amount.

From the characteristics of the device, it turns out 250 Watts for one card and 500 Watts, respectively, for two. The data is for the card under load. Average consumption when watching videos, light work, and using the Internet will be about 100 watts for both.

Next is the processor. To calculate how much electricity a computer consumes, choose Intel i9. It requires 140 watts. This is a modest value, since 4-core processors 10 years ago could consume twice as much. The value is specified for operation under load. In normal mode this is up to 70 watts.

In total, we get a consumption of about 690 watts under load. If we take into account the rest of the system with powerful cooling, lighting, and so on, we’ll take another 80 watts under load and 40 in normal mode.

Thus, we get 770 watts under load and 230 during simple use. How much electricity does a computer consume per hour? These values will be the result, however, it is necessary to take into account the efficiency of the power supply. Good expensive models provide 90%. That is, 100% will be approximately 850 and 260 watts, respectively.

Budget system

For the calculation we use the same principle as above. An inexpensive 22-inch monitor from LG, with FullHD resolution and a high-quality IPS matrix, requires only 23 Watts. Agree, these are modest figures in comparison with the model above.

Since the system is budget and, say, only for work, we will not count the video card separately, but will take into account the one built into the processor. For example, choose Intel i3. Under load, it consumes only 65 Watts, but if the built-in video is running, the consumption reaches 120. At idle it will be about 50 Watts.

Thus, for a budget system we get a value of 170 watts under load and 100 watts when idle. The approximate consumption of the rest of the system is also taken into account. Inexpensive power supplies provide an efficiency of about 80%, which gives us a power consumption of 195 and 120 watts, respectively.

Monthly calculation

It is very difficult to calculate how much electricity a computer consumes per month, since the difference in consumption between maximum load and light work is enormous. However, you can calculate an approximate value.

For example, a gaming build is used a day for 4 hours for games and about 3 in easy mode. It turns out that the computer consumes 4120 watts or 4.12 kW during this time. During a month of such use, about 120 kW accumulates. When turned off, if not disconnected from the network, the system will take about 2 kW more.

A budget model, if used for complex tasks for only an hour a day and for games for 4 hours, consumes about 680 Watts per day. For a month in this mode, the consumption will be 20 kW.

The difference between the two systems, as we see, is enormous.

Finding consumption empirically

There are several more ways to find out how old your computer is. A less accurate one is found experimentally. For example, let's take a medium-power computer, which is great for games and work, but without frills. With light load it can consume about 150 Watts, and in games up to 400 Watts.

We turn off all equipment in the apartment and leave one or more lamps with a total power of 100 watts. We turn them on and see how many revolutions the disk makes on the counter. Next, we do the same thing, but with the computer under heavy and moderate load. Compare the number of revolutions.

For example, if with the computer turned on under load the disk made 300 revolutions, but with the light bulbs only 100, respectively, the power consumption will be three times greater.

Accurate measurement

How much electricity a desktop computer consumes can be found out in a more reliable way. In fact, you need to install a separate counter on your computer. This is a small device that is plugged into an outlet, and the system is connected through it.

Such a device will accurately show the amount of energy that passes through it. It can be found on sale quite easily. How advisable it is to use such a device with the relatively low consumption of an average computer, everyone must decide for themselves.

How much electricity does your computer consume in sleep mode?

In sleep mode or even completely turned off, the computer consumes electricity. For example, a screen connected to the network, but turned off, consumes 0.3 Watt, but can consume up to 1.3 Watt. Per month you get up to 2 kW just for the screen.

The computer will take up to 20-40 watts in sleep mode, depending on the power of the system. Up to approximately 10 watts in hibernation mode. And when turned off, the power supply consumes up to 5 Watts. This can increase consumption by 2-15 kW per month, depending on the mode

How to reduce your electricity consumption

Always turn off your computer and monitor from the network. Don't leave it in sleep mode unless absolutely necessary. In the evening, reduce the brightness of the monitor, which will give noticeable savings.

In operating modes when full performance is not required, for example, watching videos, working with documents, using a browser, etc., you can switch the power consumption mode to economical. It will limit the system and help reduce consumption.

If your system is 8 or more years old, it's time to think about upgrading. Even modern budget models will show higher performance with several times lower power consumption.

How much electricity a computer consumes per day depends on the system and usage scenario. The difference between a budget model and a gaming computer, between high and moderate load modes can be very large. Each of them can be calculated in several ways, based on knowledge of the system, a simple experiment, or a special device - a wattmeter.

Finding out how much electricity a computer spends is made difficult by the fact that a computer is a complex device. Its power depends generally on the hardware - the installed processor, video card, number of monitors. The second factor is the time and purpose of using the PC. It would seem that the longer a computer runs, the more energy it requires to function. But the system may have a simple office software package open, or maybe a resource-demanding game. Therefore, you should take into account not only purely technical characteristics, but also the software and games being launched.

How to find out and calculate the electricity consumption of a computer? We have identified two main methods:

using special sites;
and with direct measurement of meter readings.

To most accurately measure the amount of energy consumed, you need to know the technical aspects of your computer. What program allows me to determine how many watts of power my PC is using? There are sites designed to calculate the power of equipment. We will use the OuterVision service. It allows you to calculate the power of a computer power supply using a calculator integrated into the site.

The site calculates the power of the iron. After all, the more sophisticated the PC, the more energy it consumes. Working with the service is simple - we fill in the table with data about the computer components and calculate its potential power.

Note! There are two types of calculators on the site: advanced (Expert) and simple (Basic). It will be enough for the average user to use the simple mode, especially considering that the site is in English and it can get confusing.

Measuring electricity consumption of a computer or laptop through the OuterVision service

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3. Let's start filling out the computer information. First of all, we indicate the type of motherboard. For personal computers, select “Desktop”.

Step 4. CPU – processor data.

Here you can select the number of cores, or find your own processor in the search bar - the site’s database is large.

Step 5. Memory – RAM. Either select the quantity from the first drop-down list, or indicate specifically from the second. We recommend using the second one, since the speed of the RAM depends on the type (DDR) and affects the performance of the PC, and, consequently, the amount of energy consumed.

Step 6. The site allows you to determine the video card with accuracy down to a specific model. The energy that goes into a computer is highly dependent on two key devices: the process and the video card.

The first point is to select the card manufacturer (AMD, Nvidia).

Then we indicate the number of video cards installed in the PC (useful for gamers - often several cards are installed on gaming computers).

The last point is to find your specific model in the list.

Step 7 Storage – we are talking about hard drives. Specifically, about the types of their connection. The parameter is not of fundamental importance - the hard drive has virtually no effect on the energy consumed by the computer.

Step 8 Optical Drives – presence of a disk drive. If you don't have one, skip this step.

Step 9 Monitor. We set the number of connected monitors (the more monitors, the more powerful the video card is overclocked, and other highly loaded processes are connected). For each monitor we indicate the number of inches.

Step 10 That's all for purely technical characteristics. Two points follow:

Step 11 When all fields are filled in, all that remains is to start calculating the approximate amount of energy consumed. To do this, click on the blue “Calculate” button.

Note! To completely change the data in the filled fields and enter them again, click the orange “Reset” button.

Step 12 Let's look at the results. The service analyzes the entered data within a few seconds and displays the result.

Load Wattage is the number we are looking for. This is the amount of energy consumed. In our case it is 265 watts.

It’s that simple, in a few clicks you can determine the power consumption of your computer.

How to find out the power of a computer without using third-party programs?

How to find out how much electricity your computer consumes: alternative methods

There are two more ways to obtain information about energy consumption.

Method 1. Wattmeter. A device designed to accurately measure the electrical energy consumed by a specific appliance. Sold in online stores at an average price of 10-20 dollars. It will be useful for those who assemble “farms” intended for mining Bitcoins.

Method 2. Here you will have to show skill. This method is suitable if you live in an apartment alone. The bottom line: turn off absolutely all devices that consume electricity. The only thing is that you can leave a simple light bulb (then you just need to subtract 100 watts from the calculation). We turn on the computer and note the time of its actual operation. Moreover, you can customize the method for different situations - check the energy consumption when working with office applications, games, or in sleep mode. After the end of the recorded time, all that remains is to count the revolutions on the counter.

How much electricity does a computer consume per hour?

The first way to find out is to return to the OuterVision website and set the Computer Utilization Time parameter to “1 hour per day.” However, we will get a theoretical, approximate result.

The second method is to turn off all devices, mark one hour and count the meter readings. How much electricity does your computer consume in sleep mode?

Sleep mode is a compromise solution for weak PCs.

If you do not use the computer for some time, then turning it on and off takes a lot of time - the system loads internal components, programs open from startup. Sleep mode saves energy; on average, when using it, a PC consumes 100-200 watts. To save even more power in sleep mode, we recommend turning off peripheral devices (printers, scanners) and the monitor.

Should you turn off your computer to reduce energy consumption?

Turning off your computer completely saves energy. However, if you use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in your work, the PC will still run the counter. The reason for this is the slow background charging of the UPS battery. If the UPS has not managed to accumulate enough energy while the computer is running, the remainder will be gradually replenished when sleep mode is activated and even after the PC is turned off. Therefore, we recommend turning off the UPS at night or when you are away from home for a long time.