thought this was really interesting.. Electricty bills.

***Efjay*** · February 24th, 2011, 11:00 AM

We just got our first bill for this place. Its for a period of 21 days & came to $96.20. This seemed excessive to me seems its only 21 days worth. So I called up to ask if it was an estimate or they took a proper reading (we have a dog).
She assured me it was a proper reading & went over the bill.
Went over what we use etc.

Normal/average size fridge
Normal average size (not a flat screen or plasma) TV, which is on all day most days (its off now though LOL)
And the PC which is on 24 hours. It goes into sleep mode but its never actually turned off properly.

We use the aircon sparingly.

Going off what I told her are our average day to day useage. its the computer chewing up the bill. I found that really interesting. DH has always told me that it costs the same to run the PC as it does to run a alarm clock. How wrong is he! She worked out that our average daily costs was about $3.50 a day. The PC would be about a $1.90 a day of that!

So I said so its not the air con, she said nope, looking at this bill if we use the aircon in the way I described ( a few hours in the evening at most & not everyday) then its defiantly the PC chewing it up. She worked out on average it would be accountable for about $170 of bill for a 90 day billing period! That is insane!

So people, if you are like us & just leave it on. Turn it off!

***charmalea*** · February 24th, 2011, 11:10 AM

yikes !!!! i turn our appliances off at the wall but DH leaves the ones he uses on ... i havent been bothered to nag him about it as i know it will go in one ear , find no brain cells to latch on to and out the other !!! but i will now ... thats an interesting thought to put to him ... we never question out bills, but i might just do it now !!

**PumpkinZulu** · February 24th, 2011, 11:12 AM

yep your DH was definitely wrong! DF is adamant about keeping ours off when it's not in use!

**sloane** · February 24th, 2011, 11:15 AM

eek! that is interesting - and scary because ours is on all the time!

**Jaycee** · February 24th, 2011, 11:41 AM

wow! good thing i don't leave ours on!

**diannescruffy** · February 24th, 2011, 11:58 AM

Wow, had no idea a PC could use up that much electricity. Ours is on all day but switched off at night.

Regards,
Dianne

**MrsBexie** · February 24th, 2011, 12:08 PM

wow! We have a huge monitor (it's like 100cm LCD or something) which we turn off when not in use, but the comp stays on.

I am going to turn it off right now!
Do you think laptops are the same?? I always leave mine on in sleep but shut.

**feeb** · February 24th, 2011, 12:45 PM

Our laptops are on charge all the time.

**sconeonamission** · February 24th, 2011, 12:59 PM

My laptop is closed at night, powers off, but is charging. TV gets put into standby mode (you know, you pick up the remote and press on and it comes on). Since we had the energy efficient guys here, the most things get turned off at the wall. And I try to use stuff only during the middle of the day / night

**Mum2Romone** · February 24th, 2011, 02:20 PM

Shouldn't leave your tv on standby.

Did you know plasmas and LCD screens can only be used for three hours at a time or you will burn them out....they even get hot

**black_rose** · February 24th, 2011, 02:30 PM

You can hibernate the pc so it powers off but it restarts where you left it. Make sure the monitor is turned off as they use the most power.

**emc2** · February 24th, 2011, 02:41 PM

I checked mine using my energy meter and it doesn't use that much. The PC on its own is 1c an hour so if I left it on for 24 hours that would be 24c per day. However, it is a very old PC about 11 years old.

**ss_storm** · February 24th, 2011, 06:07 PM

wow..we have three computers (a PC and two laptops) on all the time

although, DF always told me that they use barely any electricity. Oh really Mr IT!! Might be hibernating mine a bit more often now!

**helle** · February 24th, 2011, 06:11 PM

Shouldn't leave your tv on standby.

Did you know plasmas and LCD screens can only be used for three hours at a time or you will burn them out....they even get hot

We've had ours two years and always leave it on standby and it's fine?
If that's the case why don't they ever specify in the instruction manuals. So annoying.

**Astrid** · February 24th, 2011, 06:25 PM

Shouldn't leave your tv on standby.

Did you know plasmas and LCD screens can only be used for three hours at a time or you will burn them out....they even get hot

I question that one as well, many businesses now use LCD screens for computers and that means they are on all day. Maybe it is something about the early models that is no longer an issue in the current ones.