Does downloading of movies/tv shows used a lot of electricity?

Answer 1

No, the consumption is not the same all time
The power consumption of a computer is proportional to the CPU use...
The processor is what more consumes power in a cpu
(CRT monitors consume a lot power, up to 200W for a 17' one, but lets focus in the cpu =P)
Why do you need a 500W source power for your computer?
Is all about the processor.
What heats, consumes power...
The processor consumes power by processing, but a lot of the power consumed is lost by being converted in heat (Its an undesirable thing, and doesnt matter how much technollogy you use, there will be some heat convertion anyway)

So, if you are doing normal stuff, the power consumption is normal, it will be increased at the boot up process, movie and audio convertion, program loadings (The top power consumption is when the cpu is 100% used)

So, back to the main question, downloading doesnt require any processing at all, depending of your system, a download might take less than 1% processing capabity... So dont worry.

but, even with top power consumption, it doesnt spend a lot of energy...
Lets say that a CPUit wil take 150W TOPS (that means 1 KW each 8 hours)
A shower takes much more power than that (like 4000W)
TV - 100-150W
So, if ppl are complaining there about "Oh, light account became expensive due to your pc" - LIES!!!!! xD

Answer 2

a VERY small amount. Simply downloading a file will require a little more power for the processor, hard drive, modem/network card, etc, but really it's insignificant.

Now, if you were to talk about all the infrastructure required to download them (all the servers, cooling of the datacenters, etc) then yes, a lot of energy is used.

So if everyone were to stop downloading stuff (this means to stop using the internet) then there would be a reduced quantity of energy used. Your usage however is negligible.

***Update***

Those saying that a computer uses the exact amount of power independent of what you are doing are incorrect. We've all seen how our laptops batteries die faster when we are watching a DVD or playing a game. These activities represent significant increase in usage while downloading a file is extremely small comparatively. It still however does count - Even if it were to only affect your power bill by something like a penny.

Answer 3

No, not really. What matters is the power that the device draws while being on. If your computer "sleeps" when it it is idle then you would use more energy if it were busy downloading all of the time rather than sleeping. If the device is on and you are typing or downloading any differences would be miniscule if different at all. the only extra cost one might incur would be if you got charged for actual connection time.

Answer 4

Your computer doesn't use any more electricity doing any job. It only stops using electricity when you turn it off. The amount doesn't change while it is on.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

nope

Answer 6

utorrent

Answer 7

no!!!!