Okay if anyone is serious enough to really spend more time with this there
is a PG&E calculator that will figure it out for you depending on the size
and age of your refrigerator and your computer usage. Your mileage may vary.
http://www.pge.com/customer_services/residential/ecalc/
select kitchen (electric) and also select home office (electric)
A pre-1992 15 cubic foot refer is about $19 a month
A new one $9.50 per month
The computer calcs are more complicated depending on your equipment, hours
of operation and if you use a monitor. If you have an older refer then the
computer will be much cheaper. With a new refer then it is closer in cost.
If you don't need a monitor and use a dot matrix printer even if you leave
your computer on 24 hours a day it is under $7 per month. Leaving a laser
printer on standby can cost you $4 per month if you leave it on all the time.
On the practical side leaving your computer on all the time generally
reduces the chance it won't boot next time since it is already running.
There is a certain apprehension associated with booting a computer. We
leave all the computers on all the time at my company but have the monitors
turned off when not used. This technique although somewhat more costly
limits our computer hassles considerably.
At 12:18 PM 7/28/99 -0700, Tom Fowle wrote:
>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
Marty Tibor
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