Pho said:
Best bet would be to buy one of these 'Energy Cost Meter' things for £20 or so (theirs some cheaper £10 ones too)
I have one of those and this is what I measured with it:
http://uk.theoildrum.com/story/2006/7/1/1033/23099
Regarding the PC:
System unit = 180-270 (idle-load). Call it 200W
Monitor = 85-95. Call it 90W
But also note the standby consumption:
System unit = 22W
Monitor = 27W
So, 8 hours on would be:
System unit = 8 x 200W = 1.6kWh
Monitor = 8 x 90W = 0.72kWh
Total = 2.32kWh, at 9 pence /kWh that's
20.9 pence per day.
Should also look at the 16 hours standby (off but not off at the wall).
System unit = 16 x 22W = 0.352kWh
Monitor = 16 x 27W = 0.432kWh
Total = 0.784kWh, at 9 pence /kWh that's
7.1 pence per day.
So in total that's 28 pence per day or £70 over 250 working days a year.
The system unit is an Intel Pentium 4 2.8C running at 3GHz with an ATI 9800PRO graphics card and four hard drives. The monitor is a 21" Sony Trinitron.
For my next system I'm looking at a Core 2 duo due to lower power consumption for the performance and the 7600GT which seems to hardly need any juice at all!