[Geminiwave]

So recently I held a lan party in my modest home. I had about 12 people show up. We all had a fun time playing UT2k4, Halo, and alittle bit of CS(most of the people there were hardcore CS haters) Anyway I was curious about our power usage. I dont know how to read the meter outside but I know that the faster it spins, the more power we are using. Well normally it trots along at a VERY slow pace. Sometimes you cant even see it moving(we like to conserve power here). When I got my new computer, it moved more but not a huge bunch more.

at the LAN party we used up more than 10X the amount of power we normally use!!! And my power bill proved it! It was threw the roof! I had no idea they took up so much power!

So yeah anyway now I cant have my LAN party in november like I planned because the last one killed my pocket book. $100 on pizzas, $50 on junkfood/Soda was bad enough. But the power bill took it wayyy over.

Anyone have some advice for how to conserve power? Probably not but I thought I'd ask.

[Judas]

hmmm..... if everyone brought just a computer and monitor.... (no additions that would use power).... it shouldn't have really put it through the roof like that..

I've ran 6 machines here for a month straight and the difference between that and running just 1, was maybe at best 5-10 bucks more....


btw... you didn't get Delissio pizzas and use a conventinal Electric Oven to cook them did you?

[Lelisevis]

You could dump all your friends and select ones who own laptops. That may be a little extreme though especially when you have to send them home after 2 hours to charge there own batteries.

Also since it's your lan party I would make them cough up for takeaway pizza's and beer as an entrance fee. After a month of this you'll be the most popular guy in your neighbourhood.

[Matth]

If a solid Gaming PC has a 550W PSU, then that's the maximum power the internals can use, though the efficiency of the average PSU can vary.

A power supply's efficiency is often underestimated. In the power supplies that we tested, the relationship of input to output varied, from 64% to 78%

So you can work out a rough figure for the maximum possible power consumption of a PC, as its PSU rating, plus anything from 1/3 to 1/2 - plus 1/3 is probably fair, as it's unlikely to be at the very edge, and hopefully the PSU is also generously specified.

There's also the monitor - larger or older CRT monitors are likely to be worse.

Mind you, 12 PC's (assuming your own system is of similar type) should only consume the same power as one PC for 12 times as long) - so unless the LAN party lasted a week, I'd be surpised if it made a huge difference.

Of course, if you have a particularly efficient machine and LCD monitor, and everyone else drags in 550w PSU systems that use every last drop, and clunking great CRT monitors, then the balance would be rather worse.

[Geminiwave]

well I was using a high-end new CRT monitor that was mega low power consumption. my PC is also designed to keep power usage on the low end. Everyone elses were like really bad cheap 550w powersupplies or Compaqs. We had 2 laptops there. But yeah I was seriously supprized at how much power they used. My neghbor is an electical genious and he gave me the breakdown...basically in 1 day, I used as much power as I normally do for an entire month. AN ENTIRE MONTH! I couldnt believe it. I'm thinking something weird was going on. My only guess is that we had quite a few wireless routers there and they had some fatty converters on the plugs.

Also I didnt mention that we had an Xbox and gamecube hooked up downstairs. Honestly though, that shouldnt have used that much more power.

btw the pizzas were compliments of Pizza hut. They have me a 75% discount because I'm their favorite customer(I dont even order THAT often. MAYBE once a week but usually not)

[Nacht]

holy crap! how often do you have to eat at pizza hut to get that?

god...pizza hut sounds SO FREAKIN GOOD! but all i can eat right now is very light foods...I COULD KILL SOMEONE.

[Ev!L-aLphA]

connect the main power thing into the nieghbors house

[Geminiwave]

why not? whats wrong with you man? you sick? on some sort of freakish diet?

and like I said, I eat there MAYBE once a week. MAYYYYBE.

I bought like 6 pizzas that night though so they gave me a nice sale.

[Nacht]

remember what i said in the "good bad ugly" thread?

dysentery man...dysentery.

[Geminiwave]

OMG! Dude Nacht I'm so sorry. That REALLY sucks!

[Nacht]

Thanks

Yea, over the past week I've had the term "this sucks" greatly redefined.

[digerati]

Once a week is still pretty ungodly lol. We get pizza once every few months. Anyways.

Last time I was at a lan was quite a while ago and we blew out the fuse box lol. So after we got it back up yes we did run an extension cord to the neighbors house for half the comps since he was on vacation. It was about 20 of us. Good times good times lol

[Senor_Mota]

bought like 6 pizzas that night though so they gave me a nice sale

It's nice when we're playing D&D or having some CS LAN parties to know someone who works at Dominoe's...we get a large Pepperoni, Jalapeno, and Chicken DoubleMelt for free...up to 10 max!

[Geminiwave]

CS lan...that reminds me i got some questions about that. Ima put that up in the gaming section.

[BiGBrOwNPimpsta]

lan parties are big geek parties, there u can get a hangover too

TOO MUCH STARING AT A MONITOR IN THE DARK. next morning you'll feel it, i felt it after play doom 3 in the dark that was NOT pleasant the next morning

[pr0digal jenius]

YOur power shouldn't have gone up THAT much. And here's a hint: at every LAN I've ever been to there's been a $5-10 cover charge depending on the # of people attending, and we always go out to eat and pay for ourselves(Taco Bell at 3 am is the onyl way to fly )

[Nacht]

man, i wonder why ive never had a lan party. we definitely have the room.

now that theres all this talk about it, i definitely want to try and start one up...what could be greater than pc games, pizza, beer, and friends?

[Judas]

Still isn't making sence.... reguardless of if you blew out a fuse or not (some fuses are only rated for so much and usually can be finicy or already in use by other things) The power usage should be that much... AT ALL....

I HIGHLY suggest you get a power man down there to check it out..... something was drawing more then nessary......... Tell the guy to check the power meter, some power companies like to work on the bell curve kind of idea.... only in reverse... if they noticed that you suddenly had a massive amount of power being used for a single night, they like to assume that it works its way into the entire month.... once a year, they check the actual meter, and ARE SAPOSED TO pay you back if they overestimated.... sometimes they under estimate and charge you extra....

get it looked into...... or find the guy with a weird short in his machine...

[Geminiwave]

Actually it was really funny cause it was all of the popular crowd. lots of jocks and hipsters. They all wanted it to be secret though. You know, so that nobody else found out. And it was the best setup because the very people whom they didnt want knowing...CAME TOO!

[dj_stick]

get a mains power ammeter and check each machine
each machine should be using a similiar amount of power
as power equals voltage by current
mains power x current = power
say we have a 550W psu, and the mains voltage is 240Vac, then the current should be 550/240= 2.3 A, in america it might be different… 110Vac for mains? in that case it is 550/110= 5A

[Matth]

The "PSU Rating" should be the absolute ouput maximum, but the input power will be higher, by the lower efficiency - the worst of them could draw 50% more power than they give out (66% efficiency, 33% additional waste heat).

Is there any form of "penalty charge" for power use above normal levels?

LCD Monitor = 30W
Modern 15" CRT Monitor = 75-80W
Larger or older monitors may be worse

http://www.zot.org/~hamish/hacks/power
Measured 168W for a NEC Multisync 17XP

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by pr0digal jenius

YOur power shouldn't have gone up THAT much. And here's a hint: at every LAN I've ever been to there's been a $5-10 cover charge depending on the # of people attending, and we always go out to eat and pay for ourselves(Taco Bell at 3 am is the onyl way to fly )

rofl the lans i go to charge $30 for 1 day $45 for 3

[Geminiwave]

dude this was a bunch of close friends hanging at my house. I cant charge them a cover fee. I could require them to bring food next time, but man charing a cover fee...I wouldnt feel right.

[Razgriz]

shoot, im a football jock here at my school, and just about everyone knows i play computer games and know about computers, enough to bore them out of their minds.