$500 power bill yikes!

[Cruncher Pete]

It's not that simple. The power here in PG&E land is tiered. Completely Byzantine and indecipherable, and the rates change every two weeks.

Baseline usage is defined as 370 kwh. Is that enough to run a house? Anyway, here is the table from the two two-week periods from June, all kwh:

Up to baseline is $0.12
100-130% of baseline is $0.14
131-200% of baseline is $0.30
201-300% of baseline is $0.37
over 300% of baseline is $0.37

My kwh in the same tiers respectively:

270 (2%)
111 (1%)
259 (4%)
370 (7%)
4712 (86%)

Bottom line, my average usage for June was $0.35.

I kind of felt that it is not as simple as it sounds, and if it goes up to 35c/KW usage here, I will switch everything off and will cook on wood outside. (that by the way is already illegal.) If there is an Administration of any kind, weather local, state or Federal, there tends to be a way of extracting from you the most possible. It is also coming to our state, where there will be a so Called "Smart Meter" installed at you premises and it will calculate your use according to on peak, verses off peak rates. I can see where that is heading now, if you use a candle power only, you will be charged ex amount of cents etc. (It already happened that a person disconnected from the Power supply yet still had to pay the minimum charge dictated by the company according to their last power meter reading and it will be ad infinitum). If you are a normal family of at least two, you will be charged more and more according to their Meter reading that they will be able to manipulate as THEIR standard. There is already a revolt against this at least in one of our states. Where there are these Smart Meters were installed the locals actually gone on strike and refused to pay their bill and let the law dictate fairness...Unfortunately, the law is an Ass and is not designed to help the average person and will side with the company who will declare that you have agreed with their terms at the time of signing up with them. I am not looking forward to the future in this regard...

Keep on crunching and have anice day...

[Fire$torm]

For Michigan Residential Customers

Power Supply Charges:

Energy Charges:
6.726¢ per kWh for the first 17 kWh per day
8.136¢ per kWh for excess over 17 kWh per day

Delivery Charges:
Service Charge: $6.00 per month
Distribution Charge: 4.195¢ per kWh for all kWh

[zombie67]

It is also coming to our state, where there will be a so Called "Smart Meter" installed at you premises and it will calculate your use according to on peak, verses off peak rates.

Oh yes, that is now in my state too. Major uprisings against them. Frankly, it's not the way that they measure that pisses me off. It the lack of competition, mandated by the government (bought by the unions), that is the problem. That plus the greenies that refuse nuclear power (idiots), and at the same time demand carbon taxes on fossil fuel. All the while decrying the loss of jobs because business leave the state, and the poor can't afford to pay power bills. The obvious solution is to raise taxes on the few businesses remaining to subsidize solar/wind/whatever, which can't pay for itself.

It's clear to me that we are too soft-headed to survive. Enjoy and exploit what you can, while we spiral down the drain.

[spingadus]

Looks like my average is about $0.27 per kWh.

Based on that, running my portable A/C will cost about $197. (According to my Killawatt meter).


So, limiting the A/C would definitely help...hurry up winter...


Retiring the slow machines is probably what I'll end up doing , at least until it gets cold enough to use them as heaters

But it is true that I'm not really getting much out of them. The Athlon can only run a single task...slowly. The cd2 6600 can only run 2 tasks, but has my GTX 260. Perhaps I should look into getting a reasonably cheep Phenom or low end i7 to replace those 2.

and Zombie...you may need to build your own nuclear reactor to power all of those rigs. Your bill...wow.

[DrPop]

Zombie, I would like to quote your post and coming from Alaska to California, say, "Amen, AMen, AMEN!!!"

[zombie67]

Zombie, I would like to quote your post and coming from Alaska to California, say, "Amen, AMen, AMEN!!!"

Quote away.

[Dorsilfin]

Yup... Its not the cost of the computer that hurts... its the ability to run it that does for me.

NY, im at 18c a Kwh.. I've cut down and stopped using AC's unless its unbearable.. I shut my crunchers down this summer to keep the heat under control..

It sucks because Id buy 5 crunchers.. but running them would cost me the cost of 1 cruncher every 2 months.. at that point why bother..

as a single guy with a house, money decisions get hard.. and hobbys are the first to take the budget cuts lol

[c303a]

After my last power bill of almost $400 my crunchers, printer, monitors, routers and everything else that I don't need to keep my phone up and running with VOIP has been shut down. They will not be turned on at least for the foreseeable future. Just can't afford to donate that type of $. I had 3 crunchers running along with 5 GPU's. If I can cut the power I will be back. Until then I have to stay away from crunching.

[STMahlberg]

Las Vegas, Nevada 0.116 cents per kWh.

I don't have a problem with companies or anyone else developing alternative energy generation; however, it's can't be generalized like so many people do. What might make sense to install in New York would never pay for itself in Las Vegas because of that vast difference in rates. I don't know how many people I run across in my job that says, "We should install solar panels on the roof." I tell them that one, you couldn't install enough panels on the roof to scratch what the building requires for energy and second, the cost of the installation would never pay for itself. People just don't get it through their head that coal is cheap... like it or not.

Edit:

With the tiered smart metering that is coming, we're going to have to run rigs during non-peak times.

[Beerdrinker]

Yeah...I am sad to say I hear you man. I recently had to down grade myself due to space and power bill ... I would not run the two old boxes - unless they have big GPUs in them, probably honestly not worth the money. The old rigs can really suck down the juice for a pittance of return in credits. I know, because I did an analysis on running an old P4 rig that I had...it literally wasn't worth it to turn it on. Maybe time for a little Craigslist action?
Also, if the A/C is just for the rigs...I would totally shut it off and just drop all O/C on everything, and it should be able to run pretty well at ambient temps. Just my thoughts, and sorry to hear about the news.

If you shut down the portable AC, and drop the OC on the rigs I´ll bet you will save half your bill. OC of rigs raises the "juice-sucking" equal..And if it´s a older PC that you OC....MAN...Those old P4´s were really power hungry!!