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Energy Efficient HTPC setup? - Page 2

post #31 of 118
2/21/13 at 10:56am
Thanks, although I don't plan to purchase any more within the next two years, I will definitely keep an eye on the specials.
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post #32 of 118
2/21/13 at 11:06am
This was my last low power HTPC build:



Only uses a few kilowatts, even on standby!
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post #33 of 118
2/21/13 at 11:07am
... and yet it probably wouldn't play Netflix HD smile.gif It probably doesn't even bitstream HD audio and 1080P fluently!
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post #34 of 118
2/21/13 at 11:17am
Who needs Netflix when you have all those dials to watch; or HD audio bitstreaming when you can't hear it over the dot matrix printer. biggrin.gif
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post #35 of 118
2/21/13 at 11:26am
The computer is actually in a different room. That is just the ...monitor?...
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post #36 of 118
2/21/13 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macks View Post

The computer is actually in a different room. That is just the ...monitor?...
It's actually a doctored photo of a Navy submarine maneuvering room mockup.
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post #37 of 118
2/21/13 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

I just got a new 60" LCD TV that consumes 85W my old 47" consumed 350W, that's pretty huge.
Yes it's 1/4 the energy usage, but you have to put that into perspective. How much are you using the TV? 8 hours a day every day at a $.15/kwh energy rate will only save about $9 a month. If you only have it on 4 hours in the evening you're saving less than $5. It can add up, but it's not going to be drastic savings like switching from resistant-heat appliances (water heater, furnace, stove, dryer) to gas would for instance.
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post #38 of 118
2/22/13 at 8:11am
My latest "low energy" build includes full multi media storage and playback:

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post #39 of 118
2/22/13 at 9:13am
M'mm, knotty pine!
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post #40 of 118
2/22/13 at 11:03am
Ahh - that is special knotty pine chosen for its superior acoustic properties. Obviously this photo only shows the HTPC itself, the surround speakers, sub-woofer and the rather attractive, in an old fashioned way, remote control girl.
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post #41 of 118
2/22/13 at 2:25pm
Yeah led lights are best but I can't get them for anywhere near the cost of cfl's
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post #42 of 118
2/22/13 at 4:33pm
I would like to get four LED G25 globes, 8W (40W equivalent), 2700K. They're available, but about $30 each or more. It's difficult to justify spending $120 to put 4 bulbs in a ceiling fixture.
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post #43 of 118
2/24/13 at 8:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

It's really all over place.

Yesterday it was 16 cents kwh here. Normally it's half that.

Rates are quite complex for some utilities. For PG&E in Northern California:

1. Baseline rate is $0.1323/KWh.
2. Based rate allowance is 19.3KWh per day from Nov 1st to Jun 19th. Summer baseline allowance is 10.3KWh per day from Jun 20th to Oct 30th for area X, a strip of land from Humble County in the north to Santa Barbara in the south about 5 miles from the Pacific and 50 miles wide.
3. 100%-130% is $0.1504/KWh. In winter time this overs the next 5.79KWh usage above baseline.
4. 130%-200% is $0.30025/KWh. This tranlates to the next 13.51KWh of usage.
5. 200%+ is $0.34025/KWh.

So if the household usage is already in 200% of baseline and above, that 72KWh per month is more like $24 vs $7/month cited above.
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post #44 of 118
2/24/13 at 9:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heuer View Post

This was my last low power HTPC build:



Only uses a few kilowatts, even on standby!

A good size data center today for Google, Facebook and Apple is between 50MW-100MW.
http://www.vantagedatacenters.com/data-centers/
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post #45 of 118
2/25/13 at 7:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdru View Post

Yes it's 1/4 the energy usage, but you have to put that into perspective. How much are you using the TV? 8 hours a day every day at a $.15/kwh energy rate will only save about $9 a month. If you only have it on 4 hours in the evening you're saving less than $5. It can add up, but it's not going to be drastic savings like switching from resistant-heat appliances (water heater, furnace, stove, dryer) to gas would for instance.
Yes, each therm of gas is only $0.95 for us and it is equivalent to 29KWh which can cost $10+ at the higher tier rates.
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post #46 of 118
2/25/13 at 10:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksc318 View Post

Yes, each therm of gas is only $0.95 for us and it is equivalent to 29KWh which can cost $10+ at the higher tier rates.

I didn't buy the TV to save electricity, I bought it to have a 60" TV with improved picture. I did lean towards LED backed LCD over plasma because of energy savings though.
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post #47 of 118
2/25/13 at 12:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksc318 View Post

So if the household usage is already in 200% of baseline and above, that 72KWh per month is more like $24 vs $7/month cited above.
And then it might make sense to sleep the computer or upgrade to a more efficient model. Which is (again) why I said the OP should calculate it using his costs and how long it would take to recoup the cost of a new machine. Spending money on a new machine solely for power savings when it takes 10+ years to recoup the cost does not make sense. If it only takes 2-3 years, then it's a good investment.
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post #48 of 118
2/25/13 at 1:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

I didn't buy the TV to save electricity, I bought it to have a 60" TV with improved picture. I did lean towards LED backed LCD over plasma because of energy savings though.

Plasma are getting much better. My 55in. LED Panasonic is about 75W vs 120W for a similar plasma set. They are no long 900W.
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post #49 of 118
2/25/13 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vladd View Post

And then it might make sense to sleep the computer or upgrade to a more efficient model. Which is (again) why I said the OP should calculate it using his costs and how long it would take to recoup the cost of a new machine. Spending money on a new machine solely for power savings when it takes 10+ years to recoup the cost does not make sense. If it only takes 2-3 years, then it's a good investment.

Few of us pulls out a working computer just to save money on power. But getting a new computer and save power at the same time is more compelling.

What draws more power are actually DVR set top boxes, about half the energy used by a frig. My old Dishnetwork DVR is hot enough that I installed cooling fan. Other than that, 24/7 content server would cost some money.
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post #50 of 118
2/25/13 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksc318 View Post

Few of us pulls out a working computer just to save money on power. But getting a new computer and save power at the same time is more compelling.

What draws more power are actually DVR set top boxes, about half the energy used by a frig. My old Dishnetwork DVR is hot enough that I installed cooling fan. Other than that, 24/7 content server would cost some money.

I checked my Dish DVR with a Kill-A-Watt meter some time ago & it uses more than 40 watts, even in Off, which is really Standby since it never really gets shut off.

My HTPC (and my desktop) uses 2W in Sleep mode & 1W when Off. The most it uses is 56W when recording 4 OTA HD programs while playing a different HD program.
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post #51 of 118
2/26/13 at 12:14am
At the PG&E's tier3/4 rate, that would cost $120 each year even when off.

To keep the HDD from failing due to heat, I added fan to my Dish DVR:


Newer boxes are better. After changing to AT&T Uverse, the Motorola made DVR is much cooler.
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post #52 of 118
2/26/13 at 4:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

I checked my Dish DVR with a Kill-A-Watt meter some time ago & it uses more than 40 watts, even in Off, which is really Standby since it never really gets shut off.

My HTPC (and my desktop) uses 2W in Sleep mode & 1W when Off. The most it uses is 56W when recording 4 OTA HD programs while playing a different HD program.

2w in sleep is really good. Single chip of memory?
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post #53 of 118
2/26/13 at 7:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksc318 View Post

Few of us pulls out a working computer just to save money on power.
I've been seeing it recommended quite a bit on the forum that someone replace a working system or current equipment just because it "uses too much power".
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post #54 of 118
2/26/13 at 7:57am
...
Edited by PobjoySpecial - 5/16/13 at 2:32pm
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post #55 of 118
2/26/13 at 7:58am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by puddnhead View Post

OK. It's been a week, what did you find?
It turned out to be a combined energy bill and most of it was from the heating system rather than anything plugged into the wall. But from all the various things left plugged in on standby around the house, we can save about 100W idle by switching things off at the wall. An old HiFi from the 90s was drawing 15W on standby for example, and it is rarely ever used.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TornadoTJ View Post

Use this to get your sleep working right - make sure you have BIOS set to S3 only.
http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml
Thank you. It's actually a compatibility issue between my ASUS motherboard and Corsair Power Supply that is stopping the system from waking from sleep correctly. It's a widely known issue with the P67 boards, and all either company wants to do is replace the hardware like-for-like, which doesn't fix it.


So I'm definitely not going to spend any money on the PC, as it seems like it would be a waste of money. I'll just benefit from efficiency improvements over time as I upgrade my system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksc318 View Post

Plasma are getting much better. My 55in. LED Panasonic is about 75W vs 120W for a similar plasma set. They are no long 900W.
Are you going by the spec sheet, or actually measuring one? Much of the "efficiency improvements" is simply measuring them in a dimmer state than they used to.
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post #56 of 118
2/26/13 at 7:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vladd View Post

I've been seeing it recommended quite a bit on the forum that someone replace a working system or current equipment just because it "uses too much power".
Like you said, PCs are not on long enough to cause a high bill, other than 24/7 content servers. Higher power (energy) PCs save the later C2D don't work well as HTPC. I think I have only 1 socket 775 setup left now.

I did make an effort to reduce electricity usage in my house after power bill got above $600. A solar hot water system was repaired and a new 7.2KWp PV array was installed. Majority of my winter power usage was in heating. Solar/gas hot water heating actually saved the most cost give the same total power consumption.
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post #57 of 118
2/26/13 at 8:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chronoptimist View Post

....
Are you going by the spec sheet, or actually measuring one? Much of the "efficiency improvements" is simply measuring them in a dimmer state than they used to.
By spec sheet, but the row of fans on top are gone on newer sets. So far I haven't bought a plasma set yet.
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post #58 of 118
2/26/13 at 1:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macks View Post

2w in sleep is really good. Single chip of memory?

Both PCs have two - 2 GB RAM chips for a total of 4 GB.
The desktop has a quad core AMD and the HTPC has a G620 Intel CPU.

I save only 1W by turning them off. The HTPC has a standard PSU so I could turn off it's power switch, but that would defeat it's DVR function.
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post #59 of 118
2/26/13 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

Both PCs have two - 2 GB RAM chips for a total of 4 GB.
The desktop has a quad core AMD and the HTPC has a G620 Intel CPU.

I save only 1W by turning them off. The HTPC has a standard PSU so I could turn off it's power switch, but that would defeat it's DVR function.

I might end up buying a killawatt just so I can check things in my house. I thought PC's were more like 5-10 in sleep. 2W is completely insignificant as far as I care.
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post #60 of 118
2/26/13 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macks View Post

I might end up buying a killawatt just so I can check things in my house. I thought PC's were more like 5-10 in sleep. 2W is completely insignificant as far as I care.

I too was surprised. The desktop's monitor also goes into a sleep mode after 5 minutes. I checked it separately & it drew zero watts per the meter. I guess the amber power button LED that stays lit must draw so little current that the meter does not read it.
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