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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

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