What Factors Determine Your Computer's Electricty Consumption?

Aside from the television and air conditioner, the computer is probably one of the widely used electronic appliances in the home or office. Most people rely on computers to get their jobs done, and sometimes, they leave it open round-the-clock especially if they're expecting something very important. If you find yourself in the same situation and you're trying to save money on your utility bills, you're probably wondering just how much electricity a computer consumes and how this could affect your efforts to save.

It's important to take note of the fact that the applications you're running on your computer, as well as the type of unit you have, would determine its energy consumption. These two factors would answer the questions in the first paragraph. Keep in mind that if you were a desktop computer user, energy consumption would be coming from both the monitor and the CPU. Your computer would be consuming around 65 to 250 watts while your monitor would be using anywhere between 35 to 80 watts.

Other factors that affect your computer's electricity consumption are peripherals and other accessories like routers, cable modems, and webcams. At the same time, having a very fast processor would increase your energy usage, too. Nevertheless, we all know that fast processors are necessary these days, so you'd have to make adjustments with the monitor you use to balance it off. An LCD monitor happens to consume less electricity than a CRT monitor does, so if you're still using a CRT, better make that switch now.

Another thing to take note of is that your computer consumes more energy as it performs more functions. For instance, editing pictures, playing video games, browsing the Internet, or designing a website would consume more electricity as opposed to reading email or using the word processor. Hence, your activities on your computer would have a bearing on how much energy is consumed. It actually works the same way as your body does, because the more taxing your activities are, the more energy your body exerts.

One thing you need to remember, too, is that screensavers also consume power as much as running applications do. Hence, turning on the screensaver would not really help lower your electric bill. Screensavers are normally animated. Instead of activating a screensaver when you're not going to use your computer for some time, switch to standby mode, because this would help you decrease your computer's consumption of electricity. Nevertheless, if you really want to save on your utility bills but you need to use a computer all the time, switch to a laptop, as this is energy efficient and would offer you more savings.


Are you looking for ways to save on your utility bills without having to give up your computer usage? You can find out the actual electricity consumption of your computer by visiting the websites of various energy suppliers. You would also learn great energy-saving tips straight from the experts.