James,

It depends on the mix of components that you are using.  The monitor should
have a spec plate on the back with the manufacturer's name, model number,
and electrical characteristics.

As for the PC itself....
A safe estimate would be 7 watts per device.

Power calculations for DC devices is very
straightforward and simple.
Voltage times Amperage equals Wattage.

Hard drives and CDroms usually eat up the most power.
For a hard disk, you can figure about 1/4 - 1/3 amp for the
12v motor and stepper (3 or 4 watts), and about 1/2 amp on the 5v line
for the electronics (approximately 2.5 watts), for a total of about 6 watts.

So if you have a keyboard, hard drive, CD rom, floppy, video card, modem
card,
and sound card attached to your motherboard that would be a total of
7 devices at about 45 - 50 watts -- IF they were all running at the same
time.
Add another 10 watts for the motherboard and you have right around
55-60 watts for the system.

50 watts times 24 hours equals 1,200 watthours or 1.2 Kilowatthours.
At 20 cents per kwh that would be $0.24 per day (about $7.30/month)
excluding the monitor and printer.

Please note the generous sprinkling of words like estimate, about, and
(the ever popular) approximately... your actual mileage may vary. <grin>

Jim Meagher
=====
Micro Solutions Consulting
http://www.ezy.net/~microsol
=====
----- Original Message -----
From: James Ruby <[log in to unmask]>

> So leaving your computer on all the time, I wonder what the power
> consumption is?
>
>

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