CWatters
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I've just purchased one of these plug in power monitors. So far I've only done some quick checks on my PC but they were quite interesting...
First everything working..
PC +LCD Monitor + External hard drive + printer all "ON" = 180W
Next I thought I'd take a look at how much it burns when I switch everything "off" using the readily accessible front panel switches. These are the ones I use all the time. So I shut down windows and hit the button on the printer and LCD etc The system still burns 50W. Yikes, I've been on two week holidays in the past with it switched "off" like that.
So I went investigating I discovered that some devices are a lot better than others. For example my big Epson A3 printer burns almost nothing when switched off using the front panel button. Full marks Epson.
On the other hand the Samsung LCD monitor burns 14W. This is with the power button off remember, I didn't just let windows put it into standby. Since it only burn 25W fully illuminated the front panel button should be remaned the "half power button". Edit: This monitor has an Energy Star label on it!
My PC burns 36W with Windows shutdown and all the fans stopped, which I thought a rather high. Wonder why it's so much? All its doing is monitoring the front panel button. None of the motherboard or anything is powered up.
Now the surprise...
Many PC have a switch on the back of the power supply. I'd assumed that turning this off was equivalent to unpluging the machine from the wall....but it seems not. Even with this switch turned off my PC still burns 17W.
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