Yesterday I bought a device which enables me to discover how much power an item is using. I’m now frantically testing everything in sight!

My PC uses 4 W while not turned on, 110 W while idling, and I’ve seen the meter go as high as 280 W (during the boot sequence, as it happens). I have no idea what it does if I lock up both CPU cores or make the huge graphics card to some work. It will also be interesting to see how much power my laser printer and my CRT monitor draw.

My laptop, on the other hand, uses 1 W (from the mains adapter) when the laptop isn’t on, and between 20 W and 40 W while it’s running, depending on what it’s doing. (Again I haven’t tried stressing the CPU, and I imagine the fan uses up a bit…)

(Maybe it’s just me, but I find it quite impressive that one computer uses 10× less than the other. OTOH, one is an Athlon64 X2 2.2 GHz with two 7,200 RPM HDs and a GeForce 7800GT video card, and the other is an Athlon 1700+ with one 5,100 RPM HD and no 3D acceleration at all…)

It turns out that the various electronic equipment in my bedroom uses a total of about 50 W with everything turned off. (!) I hypothesize that if I were to ever turn it all on at once, I would greatly exceed the 15 A rating of the sockets. (Extension leads into extension leads into extension leads to give me enough sockets to plug everything in!)

Still, if the thought that mum’s mobile phone charger wasting 4 W while it’s turned on is worrying, check this out: When I plug my mum’s iron in, it instantly draws 1,350 W! And it does that for about five minutes, until the temperature like goes out. (Impressively, the reading then drops right the way to 0 W.)

I gotta check out the toaster. And the vacuum cleaner! And the TV. And… and…