[jkepler]

Helpful thought process, as I've defaulted for a while to older machines I have around, but now I question how much power they're drawing. I've never really considered power more than how long do my laptop batteries last.

Do you have any pointers what sort of equipment to use to measure the power draw? Are you simply measuring it from a UPS?

[kbutler]

You can use a device like the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption: https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Mo...

[NovaPenguin]

These are always handy to have around. The first day with one is like the first day with a label maker. You test everything!

Some figures from around my house.

Lenovo Tkinkpad T400 - 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo Laptop idles at about 10 Watts and peaks at just over 30 watts.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 - 2nd Gen i5 is about the same.

Lenovo Mini 10 - 1.66Ghz Atom doesn't seem to know how to idle its power regardless of OS. Runs at a constant 10.5 Watts - 15 watts if using a Hard Drive installed instead of SSD.

Core 2 Duo Mac Mini - 8 watts idle - 24 watts peak.

Sony Bluray player - 0.5 Watts idle. 5 Watts during Bluray. 3 Watts during DVD.

Desktop PC - 2nd Gen i7 + Geforce 1650. Idle 61 Watts - Peak in game 95-101 Watts.

Sony AM/FM Radio - 0.5 Watts. That one was actually really neat to know just how lower power it takes to run.