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iPad uses less than $2 electricity a year. What about iMac?
- Thread starter piatti
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Calculate it. Not hard
Assume a usage pattern (full load all the time, 50% load all the time, so many days a week at whatever load, etc)
Calculate the total power required for that load
Look up your electric rates
See the costs
Assume a usage pattern (full load all the time, 50% load all the time, so many days a week at whatever load, etc)
Calculate the total power required for that load
Look up your electric rates
See the costs
what duke said, calculate the costs of electricity for your imac every week and then calculate the costs of charging your ipad on a weekly basis and see which is cheaper lol...
I'd suggest using your iMac for a year and then turning it off for a year, then calculate the difference. I wouldn't change anything else in the house though for a fair comparison.
Or you can use a watt monitor and then check your electric bill to see what they charge per kilowatt.
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU
Or you can use a watt monitor and then check your electric bill to see what they charge per kilowatt.
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Ok I guess it's nothing to worry about, I was thinking of getting one but worried that perhaps power consumption is a lot.
more like $5000
Meanwhile, driving my car 14k miles a year at 3.50 a gallon only costs me less than 2k in fuel annually
I've had electric bills that were about $50 to $60 a month on my 2k square foot house.
I can't image how much a little computer that draws what 50 to 200 watts is going to cost to run, but that $50 to $60 was the total (not in summer months with AC) but a fridge/freezer on all the time, a server with a 700 watt power supply 50 inch plasma tv, many lights (not energy efficient ones) and god knows what else.
Are you serious? 5k a year to run an iMac?
What kind of car do you have? How much is insurance and maintenance costs?
The Apple site says "Maximum continuous power: 205W (21.5-inch models); 310W (27-inch models)". Let's assume average power consumption is 100W for 21" model. If it's on (and not sleeping) for 16 hours a day then it uses 1.6 kwh a day. At 10 cents per kwh that's 16 cents a day ($4.80 per month or $58 per year).
Your cost could be higher or lower depending on which model you have, hours of use per day, usage that puts it closer to the max numbers, and your electricity cost.
Greg
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I am being sarcastic illustrating how a guess of 1000 a year for one computer in a house of many electrical things (with much higher load devices like a washer/dryer/fridge/ac) is way excessive when you compare the fuel costs (which many people do notice)
My car gets about 27mpg and maintenance is about a few hundred a year and insurance is about 600 a year
I assume you don't pay bills/live with parents?
That's a good estimate - I have all my "desk" hardware on a power monitor and I have a Late 2006 20" iMac. It draws about 85 W when running with the screen on and normal load. I'd assume the newer ones draw a similar load, even though things like the backlight have been changed over to more efficient LED lighting etc.
The article said charging every second day. So if you charge every day you would be double that.
A better comparison would be to use the iPad and iMac for the same number of hours a day. The article calculates the iPad cost based on charging every second day (= ~5 hours use per day). Let's assume 10 hours of use per day (charging every day). So then the iPad costs $2.72 per year.
The iMac (using my 100W assumption) then uses 1 kwh per day which costs 11.5 cents (using the article's power cost). So the iMac cost per year is $41.98.
So it costs about 15 times as much to run the iMac as the iPad.
Greg
Looking at my UPS, my iMac is pulling 105W, including external drives.
If I use it 4 hours per day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, that's 109.2 kWh for the year.
My electric rate is $0.085 per kWh, so I spend about $9.28 a year in electricity for it.
If I use it 4 hours per day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, that's 109.2 kWh for the year.
My electric rate is $0.085 per kWh, so I spend about $9.28 a year in electricity for it.