'Sleep' mode = how much energy?

C

cwoody222

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Okay, so I just found the great Sleep feature of OSX (Windows convert here).

But, I'm getting bugged that I'm "keeping my computer on 24/7". How much electricity is being "wasted" by using the Sleep funtion?

Please don't give me watts or some crazy thing ;) I mean, is it like keeping my TV on, a lighbulb lit, etc. Give me a comparison.
 
... this is a very interesting question that i have been pondering for quite a while ...
why would you say it's just 1 1/2 to 2 nightlights, whitesaint? anything to base that on? i wish apple would give us some actual information on this ...
it's like leaving tv on standby costs far more electricity than you'd think ... i'd like to leave my g4 on sleep during the night, but i'm far too worried i'll end up paying enormous electricity bills ...
does anyone have any definitive information on this?
 
Yeah, but it's at home. If anyone has the latest AppleCare Technician Training CD the various power "draws" are posted. I will probably post it up here tomorrow. (Forgot my laptop on my desk at home)

I'm assuming that the total power draw will be for the power draw on the LED, as well as about 5% of the power supply.

Of course, the calculation may not be necessary as Apple may just tell me. I'll look it up for the following machines.

G4 500, G3 PB, and B&W, and the iMac DV.

Sound good?
 
My computer stays on 24/7... my parents haven't seen any changes in the bill...

CPU
Monitor
Printer
Scanner
TV
XBOX
PlayStation (Original)
VCR

All the computer hardware stays on along with the VCR... 24/7... never turns off unless i reboot or something...

(and i'm running on a Dell with a Dell Monitor, which uses far more power than a Mac CPU & Monitor)
 
Yeh, macs in sleep mode are minimal in energy conserving, but it compares a lot on what model it is. E.g, some models turn the fans off, while others don't.
 
how can we be sure that our computer is entered full sleep?

I use the sleep command at night when i am finished with this bad boy.... but i do have a third party NIC card installed... I want to make sure that it is getting a full night's rest ( ;) ).

I used to have an old ATI video card that would prohibit it from entering full sleep.

Is there a way to test this?
 
Ok, I was only able to secure the extract power draw from a fully awake mac.

Here's the run down...

iMac DV 80W max/273 BTU per hour w/ 65W going to the logic board alone. So if the logic board isn't being powered. 15W left over. The built in monitor draws 35W max/119 BTU per hour. So where's the extra 20W coming from?

G4 500 Mhz 200W max/684 BTU per hour
150W continuous draw while awake.

G3 B&W 200W max/684 BTU per hour
I'm glad I did the B&W, it looks like the power supply just draws a lot of power regardless of processor speed/video/etc. 150W continuous draw while awake.

FireWire draws about a 6W max
USB mice are 500mA max
USB keyboards come in at a huge 100mA (What is taking up all that power?)

Looks like sleep is a good thing for the environment. This is a huge step over previous power draws though... For example a Mac SE was at 100W/342BTU draw per hour that's with a 9" monitor and a blistering 8 MHz processor.
 
I'd like to know how much my ibook takes while sleeping. I can leave it for a while sleeping and it doesn't run out the battery. To be honest I hardly ever shut it down.
 
After using my iBook on and off over the course of a school day then putting it to sleep and leaving it unplugged in the trunk of my car for 3 days it still remains powered just enough to keep the memory in tact, a very nice feature. I never have had to power my iBook down.
 
Uhhh.... it doesn't make sense to just say watts. You have to have a time component here. 60 watts per hour (is this also known as a kilowatt-hour?), 60 watts per minute, 60 watts per second.. what?
 
Uhhh.... you're not reading the pertinent posts carefully. Both testuser and twyg have mentioned several times it's watts per hour. It's also implied if you're speaking about power consumption, in most instances it's watts per hour. So just saying watts is perfectly acceptable for brevities sake.
 
Whenever I bring my computer to school, sometimes it doesn't get used the whole day, and when I get back home only a like 3% of the battery is used...
 
Isn't one watt one joule/second? Thats kind of strange because a watt-hour would be one joule/second/hour.

Just interesting :)
 
I stand corrected. Power consumption, in the way I used to define it, would be correctly stated as current in amperes, not watts. Though I did not mention rate in that sentence, I should have said just power period.

Let's define power to make things crystal clear. A watt is used to specify the rate at which electrical energy is dissipated, or the rate at which electromagnetic energy is radiated, absorbed, or dissipated. As in the equation P = EI (P = Power in watts, E = voltage or potential difference in volts, I = current in amperes).

Just a side note: The watt-hour is not a standard unit in any formal system, but it is commonly used in electrical applications. Since we are being some what informal here...

PS No need for defending anything here tes, we seem to be in agreement, yes?
;)
 
ok Guys..my g4 867 is on all the time. I use it as a server. My parents want me to unplug it at night. lol so it isnt taking up any power. I told them I would pay my share. How much do you think I should give them a month? The monitor is sleep, just the cpu and fans are always running. I dont even be logged it. I logout the machine and just leave it on and wait for the monitor to go off then I leave. How much roughly do you think it is consuming?
 
I'm told for the new iMac it is about 5 watts and for the laptops it is around 3 watts.
Thats a fair way short of the 25 watt limit set by Energy Star, and is actually lower than most remote-controlled TVs and VCRs when they are in stand-by
 
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