Math-ish question.

[petem]

It's a bit late, but since I've been doing some GPU power efficiency research, figured I'd chime in for the DIY'ers out there:

 

First, in order to determine power draw, I use the Rosewill (Newegg's generic brand ) RHSP-13001 power meter.

 

see http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119560

 

It has a separate (corded) display which makes reading the power usage alot easier than the attached display models.

 

Now for the calculations, using round figures:

Watts: my dedicated folding rig uses roughly 500W (per the Rosewill meter). Divide by 1000 to convert to kilowatts (kW) = .5kW

Hours: assuming I use it 24/7, annual hours = (365 days/year * 24 hours/day) = 8760 hours

Power: multiply them together to get 4380 kWh (kiloWattHours), the total power used per year.

 

Now for the painful part.  Multiply the power usage by the cost per unit power, $.35/kWh in my case (yea, California sucks, but there's worse...)

 

Total cost per year (ignoring units) = 4380 * .35 = about $1500 per year - yikes! time to get my solar going!

 

So in short: cost = watts/1000 * hours * cost/kWh

 

Once you know the power usage for a given device and how long you intend to run it, the rest is just simple math 

[tobben]

Now for the painful part.  Multiply the power usage by the cost per unit power, $.35/kWh in my case (yea, California sucks, but there's worse...)

 

Total cost per year (ignoring units) = 4380 * .35 = about $1500 per year - yikes! time to get my solar going!

 

Did i just see that right? do you pay 0.35$ kw/h, seriously? are you sure that is correct?

that is bonkers, completely insane pricing. With prices like that i wouldn't even have a

refrigerator and i would cook my meals on gas, i honestly would.

[Godlygamer23]

That's what I thought, but then why is it stated in Watts?

Watts is not exclusively electrical. It's just a type of energy measurement that can also apply to heat.

[GnatDaGnat]

Watts is not exclusively electrical. It's just a type of energy measurement that can also apply to heat.

 

I KNOW. I've been corrected like fifteen times on that already..

 

 

Even though I figured it out myself two seconds after I posted. <_<

[petem]

Did i just see that right? do you pay 0.35$ kw/h, seriously? are you sure that is correct?

that is bonkers, completely insane pricing. With prices like that i wouldn't even have a

refrigerator and i would cook my meals on gas, i honestly would.

 

Yep, but just to be clear, that's for tier 3 prices, where all our "luxury" power usage occurs. PG & E uses a tiered power system, and if you aren't in a protected class (low income, electric vehicle, solar powered, hot zone (where A/C allowances allow you a bigger energy allotment, etc.) you can probably pay for just the basics with tier 1 (usually $.14/kWh), pay for TV, entertainment, and a wimpy computer with tier 2 (as long as you don't run them too much, about $.17/kWh), and well ... you guessed it - everything else is tier 3 (about $.35/kWh) - note that the last time we had a tier 1 only bill was when we were on vacation, where we used "less electricity than 66% of the efficient similar homes in our region" (that's paraphrased, but damn close iirc).  

 

PG&E determines how much energy they will allot to each tier based on how others in your category (house size, occupants, and I don't know what else ... they don't make it easy to determine how they set their billing tiers so it makes it harder for you to complain...) are performing, for example I've seen Tier 1 range from 220 kWh to 290kWh for our bill.  Considering 33% were doing better than us and we turned everything off but the refrigerator, it sure smells like b.s.  Especially when I talked to a solar salesman who mentioned that almost everyone he talked to (door to door) had a PG&E bill that showed them being much worse than the average (as we are when we are NOT on vacation).  Note, people who weren't paying much may not have let the solar salesman in, so that's not a definitive conclusion.  Still, it seems like a scam, but they have a monopoly and the Public Utilities Commission seems to be in bed with them.  

 

California.  We don't want better, cheaper, energy... we just want you to die, or at least move to Texas. :angry:

[petem]

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