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If you have a power supply thats say 350 watts, what exactly does that mean? 350 watts per second/minute/hour, I have no clue. Does anyone know the answer to this? No one I h ave asked knows…
Basically, watts is a measure of electrical power. This is from a google search, “define: watts”…
Quote:quote: A measure of electrical power that is determined by multiplying the voltage by the amperage.Yes but you pay in kilowatts for your bill, so basically Im trying to figure out the cost, I know what watts are.
Ok, apologies, I misinterpreted your original question. Kilowatts would be the same as 1000 watts wouldn’t they?
And I don’t think it is per second/minute/hour. I think it is just the amount of watts you have used during a certain period of time (I.E. Since your last bill).
Or have I misinterpreted it once again?From Google…
Web definitions for kilowatt (kW)
An electrical unit of power; one kilowatt equals 1,000 watts.Quote:quote:Originally posted by martin_bradley2002Ok, apologies, I misinterpreted your original question. Kilowatts would be the same as 1000 watts wouldn’t they?
And I don’t think it is per second/minute/hour. I think it is just the amount of watts you have used during a certain period of time (I.E. Since your last bill).
Or have I misinterpreted it once again?Still, how fast are watts used then? is it 350Watts/second? I’m sure it’s not.
However, remember that a 350W PSU will not always use 350W, it’s max output is 350W. I have a 560W PSU, and I’m sure that it does not use 560W 24/7.
this might help a lil bit
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/power-supply.htmso for how fast are watts used… there is no simple anser to it. there is alot of math in finding out how fast its used
David:
Yes I am aware about voltage rails, thats why I bought a Fortron Aurora, it has very low rails.I guess there is no simple answer to the question, thank you anyway.
Could someone tell me what voltage rails are? I went searching for an answer but now I’m a bit side tracked learning about power supplies and electricity.
This might answer your question though.
Watts doesn’t take into account time. Watts is just the product of volts and amps.
Your electric company bills you in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is the product of kilowatts and hours. So if your company charged 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, and you were to run your 350 watt power supply, at maximum capacity, for 1 hour you would be billed:
1 hour x 0.350 kilowatts x 0.12 dollars = $0.042 or 4.2 cents
Or if you only ran it at max for 30 minutes it would be:
1/2 hour x 0.350 kilowatts x 0.12 dollars = $0.021 or 2.1 cents
A basic formula to find out what you’d be billed would be this:
# of hours x # of kilowatts x price per kilowatt-hour = amount you are charged
And remember to change watts into kilowatts. Obviously, 1000 watts equals 1 kilowatt so: kilowatts = watts/1000
However, because your power supply only uses enough electricity for your components it won’t necessarily be a full 350 watts. Thats why I said at max capacity. It might be easier to add up the amount of electricity required by your entire pc and then use that amount in this formula. PC Power & Cooling gives some general amounts for each component here.
You can find some more info on kilowatt-hours here.
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