Running My Room Off-The-Grid

ParkingLotLust said:

Thunderchild, Ive got 3x75w bulbs, I think, so thats definately taking up some power.

Ive got two screens purely out of convenience. I run the IRC server on one screen, and do whatever on the primary screen. Not to mention the second one was free, so I couldnt turn it down.

I have a tv, again, because its free. A tv-tuner card would cost money, which I dont have a lot of at the moment. I use the xbox to stream movies from the computer to the tv, which also gives me full surround sound. As a side-note, 500w of sound isnt all that much, I wouldnt think. Im not sure about highs and mids, but the sub in my car is running around 400w (fused for 60A), and while its loud, its not unbearable.

Nah, I sold my P4. Im running an e6400, 2x320gb hard drives, 1x200gb hard drive, XFX 7600GT, etc.

By the way, thanks to everyone suggesting stuff. Even though I might not stick to my original idea, it will definately help me cut power usage in my room, and the rest of the house too.

Click to expand...

well thats 225 W just on lighting when you could be using 60 big saving eh ? 165 watts saved in bills or load on you off the grid system

erm why are you streaming movies through the xbox to the tv just for surround sound, now look I know it sounds all very nice but personally i think this surround thing is a bit of a joke you only have 2 ears so place a speaker each side i mean if we had 5 ears maybe surround would really make a difference, if you don't beleive me just set up two sets of speakers one in front of you and one behind running of the same stereo source I bet you you won't see any difference from suround sound, anyhow doesn't your pc have suround sound ? and the lcd monitor apart from using less is better resolution. so you eliminate the tv and xbox.

a tv card is not that exspensive i got one for 30 $and it will save you alot.

you can't possibly be listening to 500 w of sound trust me, I once had a portable 2 X 5 W amplifier I used to run off a personal stereo on a small 12v battery, well the neighbours could hear it through a stone wall before it was on maximum ans at 10 W it was certainly not that comfortable for us,

don't trust too much what you find specified on car equipment if you had a 400 W subwoofer in your car and ran it continuosly you would need a second alternator or battery in the car it just redicolouse just because the woofer is 400 W does not mean the amplier is too and they are probably talking music power which is twice electric or RMS power so thats 200 W in reality and i sur hope they are not saying it is pmpo else your looking at like 20 W

Thunderchild said:

no actually standby mode was made for us lazy humans, no I wouldn't use such a device what does it cost to turn the whole thing off ? it's stupid, am I to understand nobody wants to switch a unit off when not needed ? that's crazy are we lazy or what, sorry but consider 1 w of power for every unit in the house and over the whole world. now:

1 computer
1 monitor
1 speaker set up
1 stereo unit
1 printer
possibly 1 scanner
1 video machine
1 tv
1 xbox or other game console

now thats up to 9 watts per hour, thats 216 watts per day, that's 78.84 KW per year.... go figure all cos we are stupid lazy humans

of course on top of that you may add many other things like phone chargers people often leave plugged in and many homes have more than one computer and tv so we look at over 100 KW per year my house will run for 20 days on that

Click to expand...

100kWh per year?

That's nothing!

Remember time = money!

I'm certainly not going to bother to turn off all of my appliances after I've finished using them. I'd rather pay an extra couple of pounds per year on my electricity bill. If I were to get paid for turning my appliances of at the same hourly rate as I do at work then I'd would get a hell of a load more money than I would save on my bill.

I do agree that lots of modern appliances use more power than they should, some use as much as they do when they're turned on which is totally unacceptable. Notice I said 1VA minimum, I hope most appliances will draw less than that and I'm talking about VA not power for example a 5V 4mA transformerless power supply might draw 0.96VA but due to its capacitive power factor it'll only using 25.6:mu:W and most power companies only charge you for power not VA so it doesn't matter.

Like I was saying before technology can help a lot. I have a power saving socket operating my PC printer and monitor. There's one main master socket for my PC, when it senses the PC drawing current it turns on my printer, monitor and speakers, when it senses my PC has stopped drawing currrent it cuts the power to them all. I don't have a games console or even a DVD player so I don't have to worry about that but if I did I would get a power saving socket.

Power saving sockets could even be buit-in to TVs, you plug your games console and DVD player into power socketc suilt into the TV and it will cut the power to them and consume <1VA when turned off.

Are you going to ban neon lamps from being used in mains extension leads?
What about radio alarm clocks? Shall we ban them too?
The idea of banning standby mode is totally ridicules!

I'm not saying ban standby mode but as people think like you it seems it has to be a bit of common sense goes a long way what have radio alarm clocks got to do with it ? whay do you need your printer on as soon as the pc goes on how many times do you use the rprinter, my printer is on a switch only goes on when i use it and is uses 1 W (not 1 VA huhu) when on standby

"I'm certainly not going to bother to turn off all of my appliances after I've finished using them. I'd rather pay an extra couple of pounds per year on my electricity bill. If I were to get paid for turning my appliances of at the same hourly rate as I do at work then I'd would get a hell of a load more money than I would save on my bill."

in short your a lazzy bugga how much time does it take to flick a switch when you have finished, I sure hope you haven't got kids

Thunderchild said:

what have radio alarm clocks got to do with it ?

Click to expand...

Radio alarm clocks do draw power all the time so banning stand-by mode would make them illegal.

no they aren't on standby they need power to run as do all clocks you are splitting hairs but after all your too lazy to get off you fat ass and turn off what you don't use you expect to get paid for it who the hell do you think you are ?

Thunderchild said:

no they aren't on standby they need power to run as do all clocks

Click to expand...

What about the clock on the video, stereo, microwave and even some TVs have clocks?

after all your too lazy to get off you fat ass and turn off what you don't use you expect to get paid for it who the hell do you think you are ?

Click to expand...

There's no need to be like that, you've got no right to tell me what to do, it's my electricity bill, not yours!

Lots of appliances don't even have power off switches, the only way of turning them off is to turn them off at the power point which in many cases is impractical as they are plugged into an extension lead or socket which is located behind a piece of furniture. Now I can't be botherd to move my furniture everytime I want to turn my TV, video or printer on or off, I've got far more bettwer things to do!

most people don't use/need a tv/stereo/vcr clock
if it is that imperetive the pc solution can be used: a small battery to keep the memory

you could get a extension socket set with individual switchs I make my own having plenty of wall sockets lying around so i put a socket for each device and a switch on stuff like the printer

Thunderchild said:

most people don't use/need a tv/stereo/vcr clock

Click to expand...

The clock is useful for recording programs at specifit times.

if it is that imperetive the pc solution can be used: a small battery to keep the memory

Click to expand...

Didn't I suggest that awhile back?

Anyway, I'm not going to open up every appliance with a clock and reverse engineer the schematic so I can add a battery back-up unit, I've got better things to do!

no one asked you to reverse engeneer anything