Arcade Power Consumption Question

builttofail

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Hey guys,

Maybe this has been covered before but I couldn't find anything on here. But how much juice do these things actually use? I've got a DK, Galaga, and a Black Widow. I got my electric bill in this month and it's about 300 kwh higher than last month. And my roommate is pissed because he's blaming it on this one day I had a bunch of people over and my games were turned on most of the day. Would that be enough to significantly jack up the utility bill? I had always heard something like "they use about as much as a television." Am I a power consuming jerk? Does my roommate potentially have 15 robot sex dolls plugged in while i'm at work?
 
Yeah... covered... but here is a general guide:

19" Low Res Rastors - 1amp (90-110 watts)
25" Low Res Rastors - 1.5amp (140-160 watts)
19" Medium Res Rastors - 2.5amp (230-250 watts)
19" Vectors - 1.5amp (130-160 watts)
25" Vectors - 2amp (200-220 watts)

So running your DK, Galaga and Black Widow at the same time uses about 3.5amps (350 watts) or about the same power as running six 60 watt light bulbs...
 
You need to buy your roommate a red dress and call him Nancy while you're at it because he's being a bitch. Flip him $20 and be done with it.
 
Your in WV right? I bet its been rather warm there like is has been in Ky. Have A/C? My bill ballooned last month....guess what...no games running. I'm remodeling, they are all in the garage or wrapped in plastic in the basement. At most an hour - hour and a half on a 19" multi-game for the entire month.
 
If thats you in your avatar, you look exactly like Spencer from iCarly. Just sayin'. :)

Yeah, that's me in my avatar. And Sir, I sincerely hope that you have a daughter and that is how you know what iCarly is... ;-)

You need to buy your roommate a red dress and call him Nancy while you're at it because he's being a bitch. Flip him $20 and be done with it.

I like how you think.

Your in WV right? I bet its been rather warm there like is has been in Ky. Have A/C? My bill ballooned last month....guess what...no games running. I'm remodeling, they are all in the garage or wrapped in plastic in the basement. At most an hour - hour and a half on a 19" multi-game for the entire month.

that's true, but my central air has been broken for weeks. So we've just been using a window unit and it's been turned all the way up all along. So I don't think it's that.

So running your DK, Galaga and Black Widow at the same time uses about 3.5amps (350 watts) or about the same power as running six 60 watt light bulbs...

so you're saying I should call bullshit?
 
so you're saying I should call bullshit?

Yeah, I would say so. That window unit is using more electricity than your games are.

A game does draw about as much as a television. The cabinets are large, but they're not crammed with electronics - there's a couple of circuit boards, a monitor, and a flourescent light. That's it. A normal, 19" color television draws about 85 watts. A large set (like 27") draws a bit more - over 100 watts. Those new plasma sets draw a lot more power, something like 300 watts.

For example, round up. Assume your games draw 400 watts all together. Now assume you left them on all day long, all month, for 30 days. That would be 10kwh per day, times 30, which would be 300kwh.

So, unless you left three games on 24/7 for a month, there's no way they drew that much power.

-Ian
 
My meter man screwed up once. I got a bill that seemed a bit low one month then the next month the bill was quite high... after talking to the customer service rep it was determined the meter man screwed up the month prior... causing my bill to be low... then the following month he was accurate which included the extra KWH that he'd screwed up and left off the prior month.

Also, some utilities charge different amounts during SUMMER months vs WINTER months...I am guessing JUNE is likely the first month of SUMMER rates?
 
So, unless you left three games on 24/7 for a month, there's no way they drew that much power.

I agree. I had an arcade party on Memorial Day weekend. Ran 20 games from about 2:00pm until after midnight, all 19" rasters except for two that are 19" color vectors. I was bracing for my next electric bill but the usage increase was barely more than the previous period. Bill was $43 and change for two months.

Gotta love the Pacific Northwest and its cheap hydroelectric power. Games may cost more here, but you can run a 2600 sq. ft. house for about $22 in electricity per month, game room included. :) Rates are higher in the summer but still not bad at all. Not needing air conditioning here certainly helps. Not having kids helps too, or I'd be doing laundry every day or every other day.
 
Shit...and I thought I was doing well at $140 a month for a 1,500 sq ft house (compared to $240 a month for my 700sq ft condo in San Diego)...
 
So running your DK, Galaga and Black Widow at the same time uses about 3.5amps (350 watts) or about the same power as running six 60 watt light bulbs...

Or running the Microwave for 1/5 of that time. If he bitching about the cost of cooking ramen noodles too? Seriously, the typical #1 household power consumer is HVAC, #2 is refrigerators, freezers, etc.

For comparison, my pool pump (1.5HP@16hrs/day EVERY DAY) represents about 575KWH

Bill was $43 and change for two months.

Did I mention that I hate you? If not, I HATE YOU! Try $350/mo...
 
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