M1 Mac Mini has dropped my electricity bill by almost 50%

[Fravin]

Recently I changed my mighty PC for a M1 Mac Mini.

The PC was running Windows with an i9, a RTX2070 and a 850w PSU. All other devices are the same. Same display, same printer, same external drivers...

We (Me and my wife) didn't changed any of our habits. The same usual power consumption. The M1 Mini is the only thing different.

But the power bill has dropped half. In the first month i tought it could be an error somehow. But we are in the fourth month and the bill kept the new level.

Is it possible that M1 is that power efficient?

 

[mikiotty]

Yes. And your old machine was very, very inefficient

 

[MrGunny94]

Yep pretty much, that's why I have been using my M1 for all my non gaming on the PC

P.S Got a 850W Gaming PC with an RTX 3080

 

[plinden]

I guess it could, depending on your actual power consumption. I see you're in Brazil which has about 1/5 the per capita electric power consumption of the US, so it would be easier for you to half power consumption by changing to a more efficient computer.

A PC with 850W power supply would draw about 150-200W when idle, or 5kWh per day (but a lot less if you put it into sleep mode) and maybe 400-450W when in use. So your old PC might be using up to 6-8kWh per day, compared to maybe 1-1.5kWh for the Mac mini.

Incidentally, a wattmeter is a great investment. Plug it into the socket, then plug the device into it, and you'll see how much power something uses. Use it for a couple of weeks to get an overview of normal use. Some smart switches have a built-in wattmeter so you can get the ability to switch things off automatically.

 

[southerndoc]

That's a pretty big drop. We run 3 air conditioners in the summer (the South stays 90+ degrees most days of the summer). I would love a 50% drop in my power bill. LOL

 

[mtneer]

That's a pretty big drop. We run 3 air conditioners in the summer (the South stays 90+ degrees most days of the summer). I would love a 50% drop in my power bill. LOL

Time for Apple to introduce the iAC!

 

[thejadedmonkey]

An i9 and RTX 2070 are power hungry at full power, but you should have been running them in some sort of power saving mode 100% of the time (unless you were gaming).

An M1 at idle runs at 7 watts, the i9 is around 14 watts. Under load, it's 37-42 watts, while an M1 uses 39 watts. If you start pushing the i9, you can get over 73 watts of power draw, but since you haven't changed your habits I'd assume that your power draw would be between 14-40 watts.

The RTX 2070 will draw between 3 and 228 watts, with an average of 10 watts while idle and 215 when gaming. Since I'm assuming you aren't gaming on a mac, idle use should be around 10 watts for the majority of the time.

If the M1 mini uses, lets call it 10 watts, you're looking at around 14-40 extra watts for your PC over an M1 mac.

Assuming you have no dishwasher, HVAC, Fridge, or other appliance, and only use your electricity to power 2-6 LED lights, it makes sense that the M1 would halve your power bill. Otherwise no, it makes no sense at all, unless your computer wasn't sleeping and was instead running at full speed due to e.g. mining bitcoin or something.

A PC with 850W power supply would draw about 150-200W when idle, or 5kWh per day (but a lot less if you put it into sleep mode) and maybe 400-450W when in use. So your old PC might be using up to 6-8kWh per day, compared to maybe 1-1.5kWh for the Mac mini.

It will only draw as much as it needs. If the computer is idle, the power draw will be much lower that even 150 watts. My computer had an old GPU and 400 watt power supply. I replaced it with a 600 watt power supply, a more power hungry GPU, and my idle temps went down because, at idle, the new GPU uses even less power than my old one. The 850 watt power supply just means that, if OP starts maxing out his CPU and GPU, the power supply can deliver enough power. Otherwise at idle it should be using as much power as an office PC, or even a laptop.

 

[southerndoc]

Did your power company lowers its rate?

 

[Feyl]

It's very possible. I can tell just by touching my gaming PC and my M1 Mac mini. It's a night and day difference.

 

[doboy]

Did your power company lowers its rate?

Yeah, I find it hard to believe. Likely summer rate or some kind of rate change.

 

[mi7chy]

A base Mac Mini M1 8GB/256GB costs 8699.00 Brazilian Reals (BRL) or $1707 USD.

https://www.apple.com/br/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini

Cost of electricity in Brazil is 0.697 Real per kWh.

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Brazil/electricity_prices/

8699.00 BRL gets you 12481 kWh of electricity.

If your usage didn't change between PC and Mac Mini M1 then your PC was mostly idle with a consumption of about 83W.

For the cost of a new Mac Mini M1 you could run your PC for 15037 hours or 627 days and you're not giving up versatility.

Instead, you can disable boost clocks or underclock your PC CPU and GPU to further lower power consumption and buy a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB to supplement for light desktop duties.

 

[Fomalhaut]

My desktop setup (Dell T3600 with 1st gen Xeon E5-1650 (6 core), GTX1060) idled at about 200W when running, going up to 300-350W under load.

The M1 Mini seemed to hover around 10-20W IIRC (I only did a quick measurement, and didn't looks at power under load).

I certainly notice the difference in the winter - I now have to turn on an electric heater under my desk to keep my feet warm - a job the PC used to do for me....

 

[tornado99]

That's nothing. I went from a Pentium III to a Mac Mini and my power bill dropped by 60%. In fact, if I don't send too many emails and use Dark Mode I can get it down by 80%.

 

[Maconplasma]

While I'm sure the M1 mini is more power efficient than the previous Intel versions or many PC versions but to say your electricity bill has dropped by almost 50% I find that a little hard to believe unless your bill is like $1 and has now dropped to almost 50 cents. Otherwise if someone's bill has been $300.00 while using their old PC there's no way switching to an M1 mini would drop that to just about $150.00.

 

[GSWForever8]

Time for Apple to introduce the iAC!

Fan not included.

 

[satcomer]

That is why now more and more YouTube gamers are now using AMD Processors because Intel got soft in their own spin! Never rely in business that you will always be on top! Intel could get out of their own way and can’t or won’t get new Machines to make their Processors suck less energy!

 

[gim]

Yeah right, a Honda Civic consumes 50% less fuel than a V8 truck, mind blowing comparison, really.
but hey, have fun gaming on that Mac mini ?

 

[macguy2021]

Yeah right, a Honda Civic consumes 50% less fuel than a V8 truck, mind blowing comparison, really.
but hey, have fun gaming on that Mac mini 😂

M1 is more than capable for anything other than gaming which isn't just M1 exclusive. Macs in general aren't for gaming. OP never mentioned gaming though. If it was video editing he's after, there is nothing better than an M1 machine running Final Cut Pro X. If you are talking about power consumption, sure yeah his old machine was a v8 and the M1 is a Civic. In terms of what they can do, M1 is just as capable unless you are looking to game, which not every PC user is.

My M1 MBP is a beast of a pro machine.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I had a custom built AMD 3600x with an RX 5700 XT - all under an 850w EVGA power supply. With my Kill-A-Watt, when that thing was running full tilt, it could easily hit 550w+. Hours and hours of that adds up. Back when I used to play WoW it was a good chunk of my day.

That said, it added up very little to my overall electric bill. What hit my electric bill more was me needing to run the AC more because my gaming machine was heating up my office. So getting rid of that gaming machine meant I ran the AC less which had a much larger impact on my electric bill.

Granted, this M1 MBP sips power... makes LED light bulbs look power hungry. So yeah, there is quite a difference.

But a 50% overall reduction on power usage - the only way I imagine that working is if you really aren't running anything else electric in the house? Happy for you! I really love the power efficiency of the M1. I can run it off of external (18-30+w) batteries for hours and hours, lol. And yes, keeps my room a lot cooler in the summer.

 

[mi7chy]

I had a custom built AMD 3600x with an RX 5700 XT - all under an 850w EVGA power supply. With my Kill-A-Watt, when that thing was running full tilt, it could easily hit 550w+. Hours and hours of that adds up. Back when I used to play WoW it was a good chunk of my day.

550W is excessively high for that combo. I'm setting up a mini-ITX with 5600x, rx5600xt, etc. for my nephew and it's drawing ~210W on Apex Legends at 4K. A rx5700xt draws about +60W more so 550W is still way off.

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

M1 Macs are very efficient but no, they're not that efficient, so there's something else going on. It's now the winter where you are, so were you running the AC a lot during the summer?

 

[GrumpyCoder]

I find it interesting that those who never lived outside of the US say it's not possible and something else is going on. Electricity is dirt cheap in the US (and some other countries) and can be very expensive in certain countries. So depending on usage, if the PC is the main component eating up the most power, it's absolutely possible to reduce the electricity bill by about 50%. It's just not possible in the US, as so much power is wasted and a PC is causing a fraction of the total power consumption.

And before anyone comes up and compares pricing per kWh, consider the average income in different countries as well. All of the sudden electricity is very, very expensive in Brazil for the average worker.

 

[Fravin]

I guess it could, depending on your actual power consumption. I see you're in Brazil which has about 1/5 the per capita electric power consumption of the US, so it would be easier for you to half power consumption by changing to a more efficient computer.

Yes, correct.

Down here we live in an apartment. It's kinda usual to live in apartament buildings here. My apartament has two rooms with AC. One is turned on by day, the other for the whole night. In Brazil, winter is as hot as summer, we didn’t drop the AC usage.

My old computer were used to work, mostly intensive video editions, and occasionally gaming. The M1 MacMini replaced it. I’m very happy with the performance and the hability to handle the tasks. And, of course paying less for electricity.

Brazillian Government has increased the price for Watt so I am considering the watt usage.

I will attach a chart here showing the drop.

 

[chrfr]

M1 Macs are very efficient but no, they're not that efficient, so there's something else going on. It's now the winter where you are, so were you running the AC a lot during the summer?

A large desktop computer draws a lot of power but also puts out a lot of heat which can substantially increase the cooling costs when running AC. For instance, the current Mac Pro can output 345-1030 BTU/hour, depending on configuration, at idle. An M1 Mac mini is at 23 BTU/hour when idle, to a maximum of 133 BTU/hour at full load.

 

[Fravin]

Yeah right, a Honda Civic consumes 50% less fuel than a V8 truck, mind blowing comparison, really.
but hey, have fun gaming on that Mac mini ?

lol


Of course gaming was a big part of that i9 usage.