How many computers on one 15 amp household circuit?

[Nitro]

Thanks for all the info guys, I will take power consumption into consideration when purchasing any further parts, with this in mind I think I will get an array of 6 of these monitors http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001226

Only 36 watts each

[trigemina]

You might want to pick up one of these to get an idea of how much power you're really using.

http://www.amazon.com/P3-Internation.../dp/B00009MDBU

I'm somewhat lucky in that I have a dedicated 20 amp circuit for my computers (formerly for an air conditioner.)

[Bradster]

i;m going to get me one of those kill a watt things. I really would like to know the juice all my PC stuff pulls. It would be interesting to know how much it costs me an hour to use all of it.

[Stabface]

Lucky for me, my house has a 115v 30 amp circuit in the basement. It used to be for the dryer and sump pump, but the dryer at some point was replaced with gas. The sump pump draws around 8A if I remember... 1 HP motor?
Anyways I hooked up a 2000VA UPS to suck up the spike from the sump pump kicking in (runs a couple times per day, more if there's raid), it's more than enough to run multiple computers, TV, game consoles, beer fridge, etc without any problems.

[Xzin]

Speaking of power use - my bill came today. I figured it would be a bit much because of the new AC system and well 10 computers plus 2 servers plus my monitor array.....

It was over $500.

Ouch

I calculated my monitor array alone costs over $50 a month to run. 10 computers runs about $200 per month. Maybe I should hibernate / standby when not in use.......

Yeah....

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Heh...seeing this thread reminded me that I need to do this myself. Mine are on 24/7 except for the monitors. Need to verify just what these things are doing as I think it costs me probably $100 extra here, too. :P

I will not be doing the sleep/hibernate thing, though. Power management is way too buggy for daily use for a gaming rig, IMO. And it usually manifests itself as weird intermittent bugs that are a PITA to lock down. Better these days than it used to be but still not something I want going on if I can possibly avoid it.

[Xzin]

I have wake on lan going and I actually powered down the other 8 computers when I was not playing on them. So uhh yeah..... not really sure how else to minimize power use here.

I have them setup to boot and automatically run WoW - takes only a few seconds.. I have to switch my monitors from A to B anyway (manual hardware switch) and log in anyway - so it is not a big deal.

Cooling is a big one - that thing runs nearly constantly. 2 Ton AC unit.... 30 Amp breaker.... adds up.

[Nitro]

Ever thought about liquid cooling the PCs?

Liquid cooling may make your components run cooler but I think the same amount of heat still exits your PC.

[Xzin]

They still use the same energy either way. And watercooling, generally, does not cool below ambient.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Peltier coolers (the most common alternative) are powered devices, which use more watts, which generates more heat.