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Checking out power usage with kill-a-watt
Posted on 05-24-2006 03:12:00 UTC | Updated on 05-24-2006 03:12:00 UTC
Section: /hardware/power/ | Permanent Link

I got a new device (kill-a-watt) that measures watts/amps/volts and decided to measure the watt usage of lots of devices I had access to through friends and family. Here are my findings:

All numbers below are in watts

Microwave: Idle - 2, Door Open - 35, Surface light - 74, Fan on high - 126, Fan on low - 100, Regular heating - 1635.

Torche Lamp w/100w bulb & dimmer switch: Low dimmer - 67, High dimmer - 98.

19" Viewsonic monitor: On - 121.

Dell 15": Orange power save light on - 1, Powersave menu on screen - 63, on - 67.

Motorola HD cable box: Plugged in turned off - 23, Powered on - 24.

DVD player: Plugged in turned off - < 1, Powered on - 10.

Larger Stereo Reciever: Plugged in turned off - < 1, Powered on - 53.

Smaller Stereo Reciever: Plugged in turned off - < 1, Powered on - 28.

65" TV: Plugged in turned off - 5, Powered on - 192.

15 year old 20" TV: Plugged in turned off - 11, Powered on - 75.

Ipod charger: Plugged in charging - < 1

8 port switch : Plugged in - 6

Cable modem:Plugged in - 5

Now for different types of computers

-------------------------------------------
1  - Opteron 265 Dual-core
1  - SuperMicro H8DA8
2  - 1G 400MHz DDR ECC RAM
1  - Areca ARC-1160 SATA 16 Port RAID Card
1  - AIC RMC3E2-XP Case
16 - SATA HD's
1  - PATA HD
-------------------------------------------
Powered Off -           22W
Peak power on (watts) - 733W
Peak power on (amps) -  6.1A
Going into BIOS -       259W
In the BIOS -           390W
Booting into the OS -   380W
Login prompt -          380W
2 files b'zipping -     405W
3 files b'zipping -     430W
Avg working amps -      3.75A
Peak working amps -     4A

-----------------------------
1 - Pentium 4 3Ghz
1 - ASUS P4P800-E
9 - PATA HD's
2 - 512M DDR 266Mhz RAM
1 - 3ware 7500 RAID card
1 - Gforce 4 Mx Video card
-----------------------------
Powered Off -           11W
Peak power on (watts) - 281W
Peak power on (amps) -  2.35A
Peak Load -             230W
Avg working amps -      1.75A
Peak working amps -     1.9A

-----------------------------
2 - Pentium Xeon 3Ghz
1 - Supermicro X5DP8-G2
4 - 2G DDR 266Mhz RAM
5 - 15,000 RPM SCSI Drives
1 - PATA 7200 RPM HD
-----------------------------
Powered Off -           12W
Peak power on (watts) - 343W
Peak power on (amps) -  3.5A
Peak Load -             385W
Peak working amps -     3.5A

-----------------------------
2 - Opteron 275 Dual-core
1 - SuperMicro H8DA8
4 - 2G 400MHz DDR ECC RAM
5 - 15,000 RPM SCSI Drives
1 - PATA 7200 RPM HD
-----------------------------
Peak load.-             370W
Peak amps -             1.9A

------------------------------
1 - Athlon X2 Dual-core 3800+
1 - Asus A8V
2 - 1G DDR 500 Ram
1 - Geforce 4200 TI AGP
1 - SB Live Soundcard
1 - Antec Lanboy Case
1 - PATA 7200 RPM HD
------------------------------
Powered Off -		7w -9w
BIOS -			103w
Booting CD -		85w
KDE Desktop -		107w
1 file Bzipping -	144w
2 files Bzipping -	160w

---------------------------------
2 - Intel PIII 933 Mhz
1 - Generic sound card
1 - Adaptec 160U SCSI controller
1 - 7200 U160 SCSI HD
2 - 1G PC133 DIMM ECC RAM
1 - Intel Server Mobo
1 - Gforce 4 MX Video card
---------------------------------
Powered Off -			4w
BIOS -				95w
Booting -			60w
HD Check during boot -		67w
Login/Desktop Screen -		62w
1 file Bzipping-		95w
2 Bzip's -			108w
2 files Bzipping and hd max -	111w

-------------------------------------
Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop plugged into wall.
1 - 17" UXGA screen
1 - 5400 RPM HD
1 - Pentium M Dothan, 2.0GHZ, 533 FSB
2 - 256 533Mhz DIMMS
-------------------------------------
Booting -		54w
Login screen -		36w
Desktop	-		51w
Desktop moving window -	64w
1 file Bzipping	-	75w
Playing video file -	59w

-------------------------------------
1 - Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Mobo
1 - P4 Prescott 3 Ghz
1 - Nvidia Gforce4 MX
1 - SB Live soundcard
1 - PATA CDROM
2 - 512Meg DDR 400 Ram
-------------------------------------
Powered off -		3w
BIOS -			141w
Booting of CD -		150w
Knoppix Desktop -	103w
Moving window -		130w
1 file bzipping -	175w

-------------------------------------
1 - Abit Pentium mobo
1 - Pentium 120Mhz Processor
1 - Cheap vid card
-------------------------------------
Boot prompt -		31w

-------------------------------------
Dell workstation
1 - PIII 550Mhz
1 - Dell mobo
1 - PATA HD
1 - CDROM
1 - Cheap vid card
-------------------------------------
Login prompt -		41w
Processor pegged -	58w

-------------------------------------
1 - Gigabyte GA7dxr mobo
1 - Athlon XP 2600 CPU
1 - CDROM
1 - Nvidia Gforce4 MX
1 - PATA 160Gig HD
1 - 1 SBLive soundcard
2 - Happauge 150's
1 - 3com 905b network card
-------------------------------------
Booting linux -			225w
Login prompt in X -		216w
In program MythTV idle -	218w
Recording 1 program -		179w
1 recording 1 comm skipping -	205w
2 recording and comm skipping -	207w

Reddit!

Related stories

Power switch causing computer to shut off
Posted on 03-01-2003 04:12:00 UTC | Updated on 03-01-2003 04:12:00 UTC
Section: /hardware/power/ | Permanent Link

Fixed a computer for a friend with a strange problem. You would push the power button an it would come on then after 3 seconds turn off. First thing that would come to mind is that some motherboards turn the power off to the computer if the processor fan does not spin on startup. The fan was spinning within those 3 secs so that was not it. Then I thought I could be a possible power supply problem. After putting a new power supply in the computer continued to do the same thing. So finally I listened closely and could hear the power switch actually turning the computer off or getting sent a signal to turn off. So getting another power switch and hooking it up did the trick. So after initally looking like power supply or motherboard problem turned out to be a power switch problem. Weird!

Reddit!

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