A typical weekday’s workload for me includes lots of
web browsing and document writing, along with
occasional gaming and other heavy workloads. At the
end of the week, my Kill-A-Watt meter read 11.02 KWh
of usage. Since the average cost of electricity is around
28 cents/KWh here in San Diego, my weekly cost is
roughly:
11.02 KWh x $0.28/KWh = $3.08 per week
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year) of $160.16 per year.
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE RESULTS
That’s not as high as I expected, especially considering
my “worst-case scenario” of a power-hungry setup,
expensive city, and the fact that I use my PC all day.
Given that I let my computer idle for a few hours a day
during this test, putting my computer to sleep when I’m
not using it could probably save me $30 to $50 per
year. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s not exactly rent
money, either.
Furthermore, most people will probably have a much
lower yearly cost than me—possibly in the tens of
dollars, if you only use your computer for a few hours a
day or live in a cheaper city.
Of course, there are still environmental reasons to
conserve electricity—especially if we all did our part—
but here’s the bottom line: don’t stress yourself out
because you accidentally left the computer on last night.
It probably won’t make a huge dent in your bill.
Putting my
computer to
sleep when
I’m not using
it could
probably save
me $30 to
$50 per year.PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I MAY 2020