FAH Can turn YOUR gaming PC into a space heater!

[Giantpickle]

I am personally running my system as a ~300W space heater, and you can too! If you're unsure about how efficient it would be, take a look at this very well-done test from Puget Systems. 

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Gaming-PC-vs-Space-Heater-Efficiency-511/

[HanZie82]

Thats one tiny weak ass space heater they compared to.
Most space heaters ive seen START at 1000 Watts.
Mine is 2500Watt, and it was cheap.

I call bullshit.

 

Edit: indeed a tiny space-heater still 1000W+ im amazed. ( $25 HC-0114T 1000/1500W space heater)
That space heater must by highly inefficient.

[Spuriae]

The PC had 3 GTX Titans and they used a script to make the PC and space heater use exactly the same amount of power. I think the real takeaway is that the PC's heatsinks and fans let it circulate hot air faster than the space heater can.

[Eigenvektor]

23 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Edit: indeed a tiny space-heater still 1000W+ im amazed. ( $25 HC-0114T 1000/1500W space heater)

That space heater must by highly inefficient.

Both a space heater and a PC essentially convert 100% of energy input into heat, so both should produce the same heat at the same level of power draw. So the result isn't all that surprising (subtract a few percent for energy converted into kinetic energy for the fans)

 

Which is basically what they did:

Quote

To try to keep both the space heater and PC drawing the same wattage, we took regular power draw readings and used MSI Afterburner to adjust the GPU power draw on the gaming PC to match the space heater's power draw. With this method, we were able to match the PC's power draw to the space heater's within a few watts and ended the tests with exactly the same total kWhr of power used.

 

[BobVonBob]

13 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Thats one tiny weak ass space heater they compared to.
Most space heaters ive seen START at 1000 Watts.
Mine is 2500Watt, and it was cheap.

I call bullshit.

 

Edit: indeed a tiny space-heater still 1000W+ im amazed. ( $25 HC-0114T 1000/1500W space heater)
That space heater must by highly inefficient.

-snip-

Turning electricity into heat is a 100% efficient operation, both computers and space heaters have equivalent heating efficiency for a given wattage. I suspect the temperature difference is from either:

 

1. The computer circulating more air, moving the heat to the temperature sensor faster

2. The computer's load not being totally consistent

2. The computer keeping its components at a significantly lower temperature, so less energy gets stored in the device itself (although there is more metal, so this might level out)

[Gorgon]

 

Plus about another 1kW for the CPUs … My basement has gone from the coldest to the warmest room in the house in the winter. A 24” box fan hanging from the ceiling helps recirculate the heat.

 

One thing they don’t mention in the Puget article is that electricity, in most places, is the most expensive energy to heat with.

[Eigenvektor]

4 hours ago, Gorgon said:

One thing they don’t mention in the Peugeot article is that electricity, in most places, is the most expensive energy to heat with.

For good reason. Burning fossil fuels to produce electricity to produce heat is much less efficient than burning fossil fuels for heat directly. If you need the electricity anyway, using the waste heat for your home is fine (during winter). But if you just want heat, there's better alternatives than turning your PC into a furnace.