Subject: Re: Price of Power
From: Ernie Wright <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 12:46:46 -0500

Eric Fleischer MD wrote:

>   More like $0.066 in your neighborhood.  :)

Eric thinks I live on a horse farm.  It's actually $0.085/kWh most of
the time, and last summer it was just about $0.10/kWh.

>   Ernie, aren't you assuming each computer uses the full rated 
> capacity  of its power supply? I rather doubt they even come close 
> most of the time. Anyone ever put an ammeter on an A2000?
>   I assume that $18 per computer per month is much too high. My 
> November electric was about $80, and I have an average of 5 computers 
> on 24hrs/day. That would be $90 alone at $18 each.  And there are 
> lots of other high current things running around here.
>   My guess would be more like $5 each per month.

I was thinking 100W for the computer (half the typical capacity), 100W
for the monitor, and 50W of slop.  I aimed high, since I'd rather have
$20 in the budget and only spend $8.50, instead of the other way around.

In real life it's probably more like 40W + 75W, so $5 is closer to right 
than $18 or $20, although I bet it's low.  Consider Aesop's tortoise, or 
a leaky toilet (pick your simile).  How much of the other stuff in your 
house is on 24 hours a day?

- Ernie