Computer stuff.

[BillyGoat]

Had a look at some of the stuff that I use all the time, for work and pleasure and have found quite a few things that could potentially save me some money over the short/long term.

I work with lots of computer gear, so I have a 24 port managed network switch with a fair amount of stuff hanging off it - but most of the stuff is only during working hours.

I've ordered a power meter which I hope to have a play with, but from the spec sheet it consumes 74watts idle. That 742 * 24H * 7 days *52

GSM7224.gif (58 KiB) Viewed 4609 times

I don't need most of the features this one offers most of the time - so the replacment is going to be a 'green' 5 port gigabit switch. Powers off ports when not used and generall lower power!

3, yes, THREE watts of power consumed - best of all, it's only 26 quid delivered.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/4977885/0 ... tails.html



Wonder what else I can change to save some money......

BG

[kellys_eye]

Hope you've attended to the 'big' power wasting stuff before looking at these 'miserly' things

Do you have a 'main' PC that, when switched off, means you don't use the rest of your stuff? If so you could connect that to a power strip that removed the power from everything else when you're not working.

[BillyGoat]

Kindof....ish.

The main PC goes off, with the three monitors using 1-2 watts each, which is hardly worth the effort. The switch and amp stay on all the time, as does a server which runs 24/7 - so they all remain on. The server is being swapped out later for a MUCH lower power one too though, so that'll help.

It runs all the music, video, backups for all the machines I use (most important) and is my 'safe' machine for when I'm out traveling - when I'm in hotels, airports, coffee shops, etc I route all my traffic through it for security/privacy so it always needs to be up.

All my other stuff (test servers, laptops, desktops, etc) all just get unplugged when I'm done or the heat in the house becomes unbearable.

Don't really have much else on in the house....we are really quite good when it comes to effiency.

BG

[big-all]

are all your light bulbs low energy ?? consider replacing the most used with 10w leds[around 70w worth] about £10

[BillyGoat]

I have a mixture. On/off lights are a mix of normal/halogen - i.e, those that you walk in get stuff, walk out. The others that stay on or are used frequently are all energy saving.

Kitchen ceiling, which hardly gets used has 9 (yeah, sue me....was 5 years ago) spots. 6 are 3W LED and 3 are 50w halogen. The LED bulbs which I brought back there were complete sh*t, we've just got used to them - most of the time we use under cabinet lighting.

BG

[mark21lancs]

dont know much about the old LED ones you get matey, but i pay £2.50 each for my 36 led (warm white) 2.3w ones off ebay. they are a standard GU10 fitting and i use them all over teh house from the hall to the landing, kitchen and bedroom, i have about 20 of these fitted,

i did the math about 8 months ago that if i used my kitchen light (4xGU10 halogen) approx 4 hours aday (all fitted with 50w) then it worked out at about £50 a year to light the kitchen alone. however now its more like £3 per year for 4 hours a day :D well worth the money in the bulbs

[BillyGoat]

Got a link?

The ones I used really are sh*t. I'll try and get a photo, you can clearly see the difference......light is no way near as good as the 50s.

BG

[big-all]

you really need 4 or5w to equal 50w

2.4w is great for under cupboard but not much else

[mark21lancs]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300660864205#ht_4051wt_1037

[silver_star]

Can you start virtualising some of your test servers?

[BillyGoat]

I do / have. I use Hyper-V and Virtual PC for some instances, but somtimes VM enviroments can't replicate actual hardware for the things I'm looking to test.

BG :)