How Much Energy Is Used At Your Computer Desk?

[playafly187]

Title: How Much Energy Is Used At Your Computer Desk?

Date: 07-14-2008

If a computer is plugged into a wall, and nobody is there to turn it on, does it still use energy? While a more familiar question with trees begs existential consideration, the answer to my question is far simpler; it’s yes. As gas prices go up and up, everyone is looking to economize and save money everywhere they can. Phantom energy, electricity drawn by devices not in use, is one target of many people’s efforts. Still, a lot of us think that the minimal wattage used by an empty cell-phone charger isn’t worth the hassle and that there are bigger fish to fry. The <1W pull we observe in chargers and other small appliances leads us to forget about unplugging our devices altogether, even the bigger ones. What about your computer, though?

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[FunkZ]

lol, I just bought one of these about 2 weeks ago.

[Bones]

This article interests me alot as I'm concern with whether a computer will still use power if it is left plugged in directly to a wall socket or a power board but the on/off switch on the PSU is in the off position?

Hopefully somebody can confirm this as I've always switch my computers off using the button on the PSU with the purpose of stopping the small power drain.

Thanks in advance.

[IvyBat]

Hey Bones, welcome to the forum.

With my PSU in the off position, the tower draws no power (the circuit is broken, so it makes sense), but everything else on the power strip obviously still will, like your monitor, etc.

Hope that helps

[Bones]

Thanks for that IvyBat, I always thought that was the case but didn't have any real proof.

Thanks also for the kind welcome !