Measuring the power consumption of home appliances
Hello colleagues, I want to tell you about my little experience in actually measuring the power of home electrical appliances and my computer.
Preamble
After setting me big electricity bills, I decided to audit my electrical appliances and check which device actually consumes and how much it will cost me. As a result, I decided to purchase a local (that is, plugged into an outlet, rather than an electrical panel) kWh counting device.
Device selection
What is sold in stores in my city, to put it mildly, did not suit me at all at a price (from 1k rub) and functional, therefore I bought from the Chinese something EU Version Power Balance Energy Meter for only 600 rubles. A little bit about the device. The device allows you to measure power from 1 W to 3 kW, stores information on electricity consumption per session and for the whole time, considers the cost of consumed electricity at a given price of kWh, shows the voltage in the network, there are a lot of alarms for exceeding any threshold. Overall very comfortable.
We measure everything and everything
Lamp
The first thing I decided to measure is how much the device really shows the power of the appliance. We take an ordinary incandescent lamp and check
Yeah, well, we see that the device shows accurately and there are not any double standards in measuring power in the Russian Federation and China.
Computer
Here, I immediately want to note that my home computer is very specific and, I think, most still have normal computers. So, I have supermicro x6dvl-eg, 2 x Xeon 3GHz, 4GB ECC, 2 HDD, 500W FSP, radeon 5670 512Mb. In short, the old server nurse left over from the dead server, soldered and returned to service.
DELL U2212HM monitor
Turn on the computer through the device and watch the power consumption.
Question: Why do I need a 550 W power supply if, together with the monik, the system does not come out well, an edge of 400 W? Cheating consumers?
In general, the results are sad: the whole system consumes an average of 250 watts. What a bit much.
I decided to leave the device on the network and see how many run over a long period. As a result, we have
12 days uptime, of which the 3rd day has a torrent mode, the rest 2-4 hours a day, the electricity consumption for 12 days was 24 kWh, which in terms of 2.22 per kWh (for me) comes out to 60 rubles .
Calculate the cost per month. We get 60/12 * 31 = 155r. Here is such an interesting math. that is, connecting the Internet at home for 400r / month, we have an overhead charge on the computer of another 155r for electricity with not strong operation.
Other electrical appliances
Having measured the computer, he set out to measure all the electrical appliances in the house. The results were surprising. ALL devices that I measured, it turns out, have a power less than the manufacturer declared by about 20%! Robbery gentlemen! They were measured at full power: iron, washing machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner.
The only electrical appliance that matched the declared power was the 1978 Soviet samovar. Its heating element according to the passport 1kW, in fact 950W.
As a joke, I measured the cost of washing 15 pairs of socks (at the same time) in a washing machine. It turned out 2 rubles.
Updated
09.29.2012 At the request of the Khabrovsk citizens, I post the results of measurements
Now, if someone is interested in measuring any device, I think, if there is one, I can post information.
Preamble
After setting me big electricity bills, I decided to audit my electrical appliances and check which device actually consumes and how much it will cost me. As a result, I decided to purchase a local (that is, plugged into an outlet, rather than an electrical panel) kWh counting device.
Device selection
What is sold in stores in my city, to put it mildly, did not suit me at all at a price (from 1k rub) and functional, therefore I bought from the Chinese something EU Version Power Balance Energy Meter for only 600 rubles. A little bit about the device. The device allows you to measure power from 1 W to 3 kW, stores information on electricity consumption per session and for the whole time, considers the cost of consumed electricity at a given price of kWh, shows the voltage in the network, there are a lot of alarms for exceeding any threshold. Overall very comfortable.
We measure everything and everything
Lamp
The first thing I decided to measure is how much the device really shows the power of the appliance. We take an ordinary incandescent lamp and check
| Lamp power, W | 60 | 90 | 100 |
| Instrument readings, W | 60.5 | 89.8 | 101 |
Yeah, well, we see that the device shows accurately and there are not any double standards in measuring power in the Russian Federation and China.
Computer
Here, I immediately want to note that my home computer is very specific and, I think, most still have normal computers. So, I have supermicro x6dvl-eg, 2 x Xeon 3GHz, 4GB ECC, 2 HDD, 500W FSP, radeon 5670 512Mb. In short, the old server nurse left over from the dead server, soldered and returned to service.
DELL U2212HM monitor
Turn on the computer through the device and watch the power consumption.
| Mode | Instrument reading W, |
| Download computer | 350 |
| Torrent Mode | 190 |
| Render video | 350 |
| Gamble on Diablo 3 | 300 |
| Wife + classmates | 270 |
Question: Why do I need a 550 W power supply if, together with the monik, the system does not come out well, an edge of 400 W? Cheating consumers?
In general, the results are sad: the whole system consumes an average of 250 watts. What a bit much.
I decided to leave the device on the network and see how many run over a long period. As a result, we have
12 days uptime, of which the 3rd day has a torrent mode, the rest 2-4 hours a day, the electricity consumption for 12 days was 24 kWh, which in terms of 2.22 per kWh (for me) comes out to 60 rubles .
Calculate the cost per month. We get 60/12 * 31 = 155r. Here is such an interesting math. that is, connecting the Internet at home for 400r / month, we have an overhead charge on the computer of another 155r for electricity with not strong operation.
Other electrical appliances
Having measured the computer, he set out to measure all the electrical appliances in the house. The results were surprising. ALL devices that I measured, it turns out, have a power less than the manufacturer declared by about 20%! Robbery gentlemen! They were measured at full power: iron, washing machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner.
The only electrical appliance that matched the declared power was the 1978 Soviet samovar. Its heating element according to the passport 1kW, in fact 950W.
As a joke, I measured the cost of washing 15 pairs of socks (at the same time) in a washing machine. It turned out 2 rubles.
Updated
09.29.2012 At the request of the Khabrovsk citizens, I post the results of measurements
| Device | Instrument reading W, |
| DSL router with wifi | 5 |
| Samsung 40`` 2011 TV LCD standby | 0,0 (!) |
| Samsung 40`` 2011 TV LCD in TV mode | 70 |
| TV Sharp 14 ,,, CRT 1993 onwards In standby | 7 |
| TV Sharp 14 ,,, CRT 1993 onwards in tv mode | 47 |
| Phone charging | 2.8 |
| Aser aspire one netbook charging - off | fifteen |
| Aser aspire one netbook charging - on | 20-30 |
| Microwave Samsung 2008 onwards In standby | 4 |
Now, if someone is interested in measuring any device, I think, if there is one, I can post information.