Energy consumption/Computer VS furnace?

Question

The furnace is circa 1960's, the computer is 2005.

There is no A/C and the furnace is as large as a small bathroom, runs near constant in winter. (set at 70 degrees) Thanks!

Yes, it's an argument boo-hoo.

Answer 1

Easy one. The computer will use between 30 and 300W depending on its size, display, etc. Convert that to BTU (3.412 BTU/W) and you get 102 to 1024 BTU.

The furnace is rated in BTU/h, it's right on the rating plate. A large one is 100-200k BTU/h.

So let's see... computer... 102 to 1k BTU/h vs. furnace... 100-200k BTU/h. Not even close: the furnace is using about two or three orders of magnitude more energy than the computer.

So, did  you win?

Answer 2

This has to be a no brain-er.  Common sense would tell you it is the furnace.  You can easily do the calculation.  Get you computer watt rating, my guess is somewhere less than 130 Watts, and multiply it by 3.4144 to convert to BTUH.  Compare this to your furnace BTUH rating, my guess somewhere more that 50,000 BTUH.  So you computer uses less than 1,000 BTUH and you furnace over 50,000 BTUH.  No contest.

If you want to know total daily power consumption multiply each by the number of hours per day they run.  It will still be no contest for the furnace.

If you are talking about cost that could be a different story, but not likely, since the computer uses electricity and the furnace uses gas or something else combustible.  Unless your electricity is very very expensive and you have a natural gas well on your property the furnace will cost more to run.