3B1 Electric bill!

[Paul de Bra]

In article <258 at ramecs.UUCP> car at ramecs.UUCP (Chris Rende) writes:
>After leaving the 3B1 one for a month, like the manual suggests, I received
>my first electric bill.
>
>Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>My electric bill increased by $20 per month!
>
>Is this reasonable?!

Considering the power consumption of the 3B1 this is reasonable.
(I only wish my fully loaded 386 box would only cost about $20 per
month in electricity)
A major factor in the power consumption of the 3B1 is the fact that the
screen is on all the time. There is no power switch for the screen and
I heard that leaving that screen on 24 hours a day shortens its life-span
considerably. It was certainly NOT REASONABLE to ever have designed the
damn thing so you could not power down the screen. (note that the screen-
blanking does not really reduce the power consumption)

So part of a solution to your problem is to mess with the internals a bit
to install a power switch for the screen.

Paul.
(debra at research.att.com)