Knowing how much a computer spends on 24 hours is essential when it comes to achieving energy savings and knowing how much a computer consumes in euros, so that we can reduce what we pay on our electricity bill.
We hope to make an analysis in this article that will be useful for you to make these calculations. Let’s go there!
Index of contents
- What is the consumption of a PC and how is it measured?
- How much does a computer spend on 24 hours? Approximate consumption of laptop and desktop
- And how much does a laptop consume?
- Is it a good idea to leave the PC on all day?
- How much does a computer consume in euros: learn to calculate it
- Conclusions on how much a computer spends on 24 hours a day
What is the consumption of a PC and how is it measured?
The consumption of a computer refers to how much energy it needs from the electrical network to which it is connected. We can measure this in two ways:
- By electrical power (in watts or W). It tells us what the consumption is at a given moment, that is, what amount of energy is required at the exact moment in which the measurement is made.
- Through electrical energy (in several-hours or Wh). Here what we see is how much energy has been needed in a given period of time. For example, a constant consumption of 10W for a whole hour would be 10Wh.
The main way to measure this is by using a home electricity meter. It is a device where we will plug the power supply of our computer, or any device from which we want to measure how much it spends, in order to analyze the instantaneous W or to be able to calculate the energy spent during a certain period.
How much does a computer spend on 24 hours? Approximate consumption of laptop and desktop
If you don’t have a consumption meter, it is reasonable to go into estimates to calculate how much a computer spends on 24 hours.
Basically, we must distinguish whether we are talking about a laptop or a desktop PC. For now, we’ll focus on desktops, moving on to laptops later.
On a desktop PC, we must have a distinction between two cases:
- Computer with a dedicated graphics card. It is, above all, PC gaming. Here, the consumption at rest (which is what interests us to calculate how much a computer spends on 24 hours) can increase up to 30W or even moreif we have the screen on.
- Computer that only uses integrated graphics. Here normally the consumption is similar no matter how the screen is.
Note: this is the consumption of a complete computer , measured at the plug.
If we go to our own analysis data, we see that using a dedicated graphics card the idle consumption is between 55 and 85W depending on the GPU. This is measured with the same processor and with the screen turned on.
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In turn, if we go to the data of our CPU reviews, where the graphics card is maintained and what changes are the processors, we see a variation between 30W and 85W.
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In addition, in that graph there are two specific processors in which a dedicated graph was not being used, where the consumption was 25W in one case and 40W in another.
So it makes sense to conclude that a computer that is idle spends, on average, about 50W. Some more, some less. That will be the reference value with which we are going to make comparisons and calculations in the article: the conclusion on how much a computer spends on 24 hours is 50W * 24h = 1200 Wh = 1.2 kWh.
The approximate average consumption is 50W, we will immediately analyze how much it means in the electricity bill.
And how much does a laptop consume?
In the case of laptops, there are two things that make the calculation of consumption something very different:
- The components are designed to consume much less,so that the battery can last.
- What we will measure on the wall, unless the battery is removable, is the consumption of the battery charge, and not what the components of the computer itself consume.
So, here we have two alternatives to know how much a laptop spends on 24 hours a day:
- Watch it via software. If we look at a program like HWinfo64, we can see (with the charger disconnected) a negative charge rate that will basically be the consumption in watts of the laptop at that given moment.
- We can also calculate how long the battery lasts with the laptop at restand, based on that, make a calculation. For example, if we have a laptop with a 60Wh battery in which the laptop lasts 10 hours on standby, it means that the average consumption has been 6W .
Is it a good idea to leave the PC on all day?
Although we still don’t know if having the PC on 24 hours means a lot to us in the electric bill, we should ask ourselves if it is a good idea or not, in view of the durability of the components.
The truth is that having the computer constantly on wears out some components more, especially the fans, the power supply and perhaps the disks, among others.
However, if we really need it and the components of our computer are decent, it is justified to do so. We must, yes, restart the computer from time to time to debug the problems that arise in the operating system.
How much does a computer consume in euros: learn to calculate it
You may be interested in contextualizing the consumption data and analyzing how much your computer costs you per month. To calculate how much our computer consumes in euros, we need two pieces of information:
- The consumption itself, in watts, which we will convert to watt-hoursby multiplying by the number of hours per day that the PC works under that consumption. If we use a reference 50W and use 24/7, it would be 1200 Wh per day (1.2kWh).
- The price of electricity. This is measured in €/kWh,or euros per kilowatt-hour. It depends on your electricity rate, or the price in the market according to the rate you have.
The most difficult data to obtain is the second, especially in these times, in which it fluctuates so much.
Check the price of the invoiced energy (€/kWh) in your most recent electricity bill.
We can assume the price of electricity more or less realistically, at an approximate average of €0.20/kWh. This means that each kWh spent costs us 20 cents, to which VAT and electricity tax should be added, which are (in total) approximately 25% in a normal situation, and at the time of writing these lines they are 5.5 % (5% VAT + 0.5% special tax).
Therefore, our reference data is going to be €0.22/kWh, with that we will calculate how much a computer consumes in euros. The electricity bill has other concepts, but they do not depend on how much we consume but on the contracted rate, so we do not need to know more.
Well, if we do our 50W test, 24 hours a day, with electricity at €0.22/kWh, we obtain the following results:
Calculations of how much a computer consumes in euros: 0.05kW × number of hours × 0.22€/kWh:
- 12 hours: €0.132
- 24 hours: €0.264
- 7 days (24/7): €1,848
- 30 days (24/7): €7.92
- 365 days (24/7): €96.36
All this is assuming a constant consumption of 50W, we have already commented that this is probably not the case.
For this reason, the best alternative is still a domestic electricity consumption meter. You can easily make it profitable: if the data above is met, as long as you achieve savings of 10% per year, it would already be more than amortized.
Conclusions on how much a computer spends on 24 hours a day
As we say, to measure how much a computer consumes, it is best to use a consumption meter, and in fact we can directly calculate how much it means in euros using the device itself (or its app, if it is a smart meter), without having to calculate us.
If we don’t want to use a meter, and it helps us with an estimate, we have come to the conclusion that, on average, a computer on 24 hours a day and at rest can spend about 50W. Everything will also depend on how much you spend while we use it, something that we have not taken into account.
We recommend reading the best power supplies on the market.
In the case of laptops, making the measurement is easier, since we can calculate how fast the battery is discharged with many monitoring programs. This way we will have the correct data.
