This article is about the mammal. For other uses, see Porcupine (disambiguation) . Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that protect against predators. The term covers two families of animals, the Old World porcupines and New World porcupines.
An average desktop computer uses between 60 and 300 watts. It is very difficult to know exactly how much computers use on average because there are so many different hardware configurations.
Variations in Power. The amount of heat a computer produces varies in relation to the amount of work it does. At the low end, a cellphone generates only a few milliwatts of heat in Standby mode, conserving battery power. From its 100-watt minimum, an average desktop PC can range up to 130 watts when used heavily. The fans used in desktops and laptops sense the microprocessor's temperature, running slowly for light use and faster for demanding computing tasks; this minimizes fan noise and saves energy.