The designers of modern pcs are doing there best to reduce power consumption
with hard disks that shut down when not in use and so on. Generally modern
peripherals that aren't doing anything draw very little power when idling.
Over a day, though considering that refrigerators are getting more and more
energy efficient, its probably pretty close to the same.
when going full bore, the modern pc probably draws a couple hundred watts.
when the hard disk and monitor shut down in idle power saving modes it may
be less than half that.  It varies too with brand and
how much money they put into power savings and how you have the power management
firmware which is often particular to a machine setup.

The debate continues as to when, if ever, you should turn the machines off.
If you're gonna use it several times during a day for an hour or more each
time, then leave it onn.  Night is a different question and i don't have a
strong opinion
As another respondant said, refrigerators draw lots, maybe 500 watts, when the
compressor motor is on, but it is on maybe 1/4 of total time, in
a day so the average may not be that different.

Hope that helps, probably not much
Tom Fowle
Embedded Systems Developer/ Rehab engineer
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
2318 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
415-345-2123 (Voice)
Internet [log in to unmask]


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