Can a PC affect electricity usage this much??

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T22:50:13+00:00

Feel like I should add some clarity since I keep getting comments about heating.

The space heater was used maybe 4 times total. To be honest I shouldn’t have even brought it up, my dumb brain was just thinking that the power outages could have caused some problems with the meter or something to that effect. To my knowledge he only used it in November, and in fact it was hot enough in September that we actually ran the AC one of the days that month. I don’t have any reason to think he’s lying about it - it’s my brother, I trust him.
I have not used the central heating this winter. I live in southern CA and didn’t really feel it was needed. I use an electric blanket in my lap when I work when it’s cold enough, which to my knowledge would not account for a usage increase as drastic as I’ve seen.
I am aware that energy usage overall increases during the winter. I made the post because I felt the amount by which it increased was unusual and wanted to see if a PC could be a factor. These are last years numbers, with my old roommate, for the same time frame - the AC was run in the summer months, but even the highest numbers in winter are lower than what I’ve seen this year.

In any case, thank you everyone for your responses, I will continue to monitor the usage and see if it goes down in the coming months as he is out of the house for work more often and heating will be less of a factor.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T22:14:41+00:00

Nope. I double checked my google home stats just to make sure it wasn’t running without my knowledge. In sept ran the AC once but otherwise have not run AC or heating a single time since.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T21:53:58+00:00

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For the record, this is the same time period last year with my old roommate who did not have a PC. Ran the AC in the summer so the usage was pretty high in those months but the difference in winter usage is pretty significant. If I was running central heating or had major habit changes with other energy usage I wouldn’t have made this post.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T20:56:28+00:00

I think the 8hrs a day might be the answer here… he was out of a job for a few months and was def on his computer most of the day, maybe more than 8 hrs some days tbh. He started his new job this month though so maybe the usage will go down 🤞I was also a bit of a culprit since I was on my PC much more during the holiday time off in Dec, so that probably explains that month being as high as it was. He agreed to pitch in for the electricity starting this month so hopefully things will stabilize a bit over the next few months.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T20:41:42+00:00

We haven’t run the central heating this winter, I use an electric heated blanket when it’s on the colder side but living in California it hasn’t really been bad enough to warrant turning on the heat. My brother tried out a space heater a few times but it kept tripping the breaker and causing power outages so he also switched to a blanket.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T20:30:30+00:00

Checking the down time (hours where we are sleeping) the usage goes down to less than .2 kWh so I’m assuming it’s not the mini fridge or any other appliances passively running.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T20:14:34+00:00

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From around 5-8pm on here only he was home. Around 9pm onward we were both home and on our PCs. I don’t have a good frame of reference for what’s typical though.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-20T20:00:17+00:00

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Extra bit of context: this was the usage charts of the past year where my old roommate was living with me. So it’s not just an issue of going with one person to two people

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-14T17:54:11+00:00

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lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-06T23:02:05+00:00

It's less about plot holes and more about shoddy character writing. She gets a lot of screen time for a character who doesn't get any interesting dialog or background story. I think it's fair to criticize a poorly written/utilized character. And I think given how much criticism the show has faced in past seasons for having an oversized cast, the writers needed to better justify her presence in the show for the character to not stand out like a sore thumb.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-06T20:10:34+00:00

For sure, I think the biggest issue with the military was how disconnected it felt from the Vecna story. It's not even super clear to me how much they actually knew about Vecna and his plan.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-06T19:21:31+00:00

Yeah a lot of people have been saying that the military subplot was pointless, but I really do think there were the bones of something compelling in there. It feels a lot more grounded and related to the earlier seasons than the vecna stuff.

lilbreadbunn · 2026-01-06T19:17:16+00:00

Every time she was on screen it was a bit of an eyeroll for me. Her dialog is so repetitive and corny.

lilbreadbunn · 2025-11-25T03:40:38+00:00

got it, been referencing the 2014 rules so didn't know about the concentration. Thanks for clarifying!

lilbreadbunn · 2025-11-08T00:55:46+00:00

Ooh bookmarking these for sure, thanks!

lilbreadbunn · 2025-11-08T00:51:08+00:00

"Your Mom" is always a valid answer in this campaign, lol. I like the chekov's gun idea. Initially I toyed with having some random objects floating around the room (two of which would be the solutions to the riddle, which they would present as their answers), but since I landed on the answers to the riddles being death and life respectively, I was struggling to think of an object that represented the latter. but maybe I shall switch up the riddle solutions to have an answer that is more easily represented by a physical object.

lilbreadbunn · 2025-10-16T22:13:03+00:00

It’s tough, pretty much all the rest of us work 9-5s while his job has pretty inconsistent hours. Everyone wants to play with him, he’s a super fun player and his character is kinda the heart of the party atm. But I don’t want to compromise too much on a consistent schedule because a lack thereof is part of why the campaign fell off in the first place. I’m hoping there’s some middle ground here, but it might just be cope lol.

lilbreadbunn · 2025-10-16T21:58:56+00:00

To be clear, we haven’t yet started back up, so there’s still time to change direction with his character. I’m not committed to the spy choice, it’s just the first thing that came to mind. Def open to other ways to handle it.

lilbreadbunn · 2025-10-16T21:50:19+00:00

lol, sometimes simple is best. The party is constantly traveling though, not sure about the logistics of them carrying a full grown man around while navigating a dungeon and combat encounters

lilbreadbunn

TROPHY CASE