What is the best way to calculate how much electricity my PC consumes?

[Era of not Yakuza]

Long story short: I'm moving to a new apartment and I will live with two other friends. Since we are going to pay the bills together I would like to know how much energy my PC will consume. They both spend most of their days outside but I do most of my work on my own PC and I want to avoid problems with them complaining about how the bills are high when they arent even at home.
I have no idea and I'm terrible at reading HWIFO, that is why I'm asking for help <3
So, how do I calculate the KW/H that my pc consumes?
(I tried to google but I did not understand what I read....)

 

[teruterubozu]

Shut down everything in the fusebox panel except where you plug in your computer. Run computer and read the meter outside.

 

[nsilvias]

you could buy a killawatt

 

[oneils]

Long story short: I'm moving to a new apartment and I will live with two other friends. Since we are going to pay the bills together I would like to know how much energy my PC will consume. They both spend most of their days outside but I do most of my work on my own PC and I want to avoid problems with them complaining about how the bills are high when they arent even at home.
I have no idea and I'm terrible at reading HWIFO, that is why I'm asking for help <3
So, how do I calculate the KW/H that my pc consumes?

Click to shrink...

There are consumption calculators, online, that you can use. You would have to make assumptions around how much time is spent idling vs under load. So maybe 3 hours idle, 3 hours under load gives you two calculations. Then you multiply the consumption by your $ rate.

edit: here is one https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/energy-consumption-calculator.html

if you know the cpu and gpu of your build, it would be easy enough to determine idle draw vs load draw.

 

[Tater]

Get a Kill-A-Watt. It's a designed for this purpose. You plug your PC into this, and then you plug the device into the wall. It will track power usage.

Kill A Watt Meter - Electricity Usage Monitor | P3

 

[The Albatross]

Easiest way is to buy a smart meter that your pc plugs into. Like without turning off everything in your house. A lot of them have the functionality and don't cost very much. Google the models....I think samsungs does it.

 

[super-famicom]

I hear good things about Kill-A-Watt
You can also use this calculator to get a rough estimate as well:

Power Supply Calculator - PSU Calculator | OuterVision

Power Supply Calculator - Select computer parts and our online PSU calculator will calculate the required power supply wattage and amperage for your PC.

outervision.com

You can add all the parts you have and even specify how many hours of gaming or other activities you do daily.

 

[Walter White Walker]

I used a Klll-A-Watt. Even though I work from home on my PC all day, the amount of electricity it uses is negligible. It was less than $5 a month as I recall.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

Shut down everything in the fusebox panel except where you plug in your computer. Run computer and read the meter outside.

Click to shrink...

you could buy a killawatt

Click to shrink...

Get a Kill-A-Watt. It's a designed for this purpose. You plug your PC into this, and then you plug the device into the wall. It will track power usage.

Kill A Watt Meter - Electricity Usage Monitor | P3

Click to shrink...

Easiest way is to buy a smart meter that your pc plugs into. Like without turning off everything in your house. A lot of them have the functionality and don't cost very much. Google the models....I think samsungs does it.

Click to shrink...

There are consumption calculators, online, that you can use. You would have to make assumptions around how much time is spent idling vs under load. So maybe 3 hours idle, 3 hours under load gives you two calculations. Then you multiply the consumption by your $ rate.

edit: here is one https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/energy-consumption-calculator.html

if you know the cpu and gpu of your build, it would be easy enough to determine idle draw vs load draw.

Click to shrink...

I hear good things about Kill-A-Watt
You can also use this calculator to get a rough estimate as well:

Power Supply Calculator - PSU Calculator | OuterVision

Power Supply Calculator - Select computer parts and our online PSU calculator will calculate the required power supply wattage and amperage for your PC.

outervision.com

You can add all the parts you have and even specify how many hours of gaming or other activities you do daily.

Click to shrink...

Thank you all

I did the math here, 111kw month x 0,62226= R$70 in the worst cases <3

 

[Transistor]

you could buy a killawatt

Click to shrink...

This right here. It's simply the most accurate method.

 

[Pargon]

A basic meter like a kill-a-watt won't tell you much considering how different the power consumption is between idle/light workloads and heavy workloads/gaming.
You would need a logging meter to get a good idea of what it's actually using over the course of a month.
This is a common feature of mid-range smart plugs now (the cheapest ones will not log energy usage).

 

[Walter White Walker]

A basic meter like a kill-a-watt won't tell you much considering how different the power consumption is between idle/light workloads and heavy workloads/gaming.
You would need a logging meter to get a good idea of what it's actually using over the course of a month.
This is a common feature of mid-range smart plugs now (the cheapest ones will not log energy usage).

Click to shrink...

A Kill-A-Watt measures your consumption over time.

 

[Tater]

A basic meter like a kill-a-watt won't tell you much considering how different the power consumption is between idle/light workloads and heavy workloads/gaming.
You would need a logging meter to get a good idea of what it's actually using over the course of a month.
This is a common feature of mid-range smart plugs now (the cheapest ones will not log energy usage).

Click to shrink...

The Kill-A-Watt will track total kWh used. The model I have doesn't store it in non-volatile storage, though - so a power outage or removing it from the wall will cause it to lose the metrics it has collected.

 

[Mukrab]

I dont know OP. Just offer to pay a bit more, maybe they dont even care. You say you are worried about them thinking that its not fair for you to pay the same if you use more but arent you worried about how you will look like if you buy one of those devices to measure it? You'll look like a huge cheap ass douche that is measuring his kw/h so that you wont pay a single cent more than you used. Maybe its just me though, not saying anyone else is wrong, but thats how i would do it.

 

[molnizzle]

Thank you all

I did the math here, 111kw month x 0,62226= R$70 in the worst cases <3

Click to shrink...

The only way to actually know is to get a power meter that plugs between the wall and your PC. Those calculators are not that accurate.

 

[Shadybiz]

This has gotta be a fairly negligible amount, right?

I would think that any significant spikes in costs would come from the heat, A/C, space heaters, etc. being run all day.

 

[Pargon]

A Kill-A-Watt measures your consumption over time.

Click to shrink...

Oh, my bad. The Kill-a-Watt products are US-only so I've only used "equivalent" products.
I didn't realize they had a logging feature. Similar products here only track things like maximum consumption, not the average over an extended period of time; e.g. a week or a month.

 

[fick]

Ask your electric provider for their annual power generation/consumption report for 2020. Turn your computer off now. Ask them for the 2021 report next year, and calculate the difference.

 

[CatAssTrophy]

If you already have a UPS (battery backup power strip) with a USB port on it, it's likely got a software tool you can run on your PC to connect to it and monitor the energy use in real time.

I found out my CyberPower UPS has this function over the weekend when the battery was failing. I was able to see how much load my PS5 + TV + Sound Bar put on it and ensure it stays under the wattage it's rated at. (it was 368 at the very most during heavy load, by the way)