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Ouch ! Got electric bill today...

R

RPhArrow

Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
939
I've decided that it is relatively expensive to heat your house with P4's ! I get billed every 2 months... Obviously the meter reader didn't believe the November reading , as my bill was $75 low (considering average) ... but they caught up this month with a $288 bill !! This caused a short discussion with my spouse.... and the decision... is.... Fold On !!! Thanks to my understanding wife ( who has her own expensive hobby.... as I discreetly pointed out...) :D



P.S. I got a call at work today... " I tried to vacuum your computer room, but the circuit breaker blew... what box do I have to turn back on to keep you in the [H]ordeBowl ?? "

Isn't that sweet ?
 
Holy freaking crap, a $288 electric bill? Time to turn down the heat and up the overclock! :p

 
this is were its great to have cheep electricity and not have to pay cause im only 17, my parents pay :p

 
saturnine2 said:
Holy freaking crap, a $288 electric bill? Time to turn down the heat and up the overclock! :p

Click to expand...
Exactly my point.... the heat IS the overclock :D If I start clocking down, my family will freeze ! (Well, that may be an exageration... :))
 
You might be able to save some if you set them all back down to stock speed and undervolt them all. I know that I can run my Athlon 64 at 2GHz with only 1.125 volts (stock is 1.5 volts)
 
Unknown-One said:
You might be able to save some if you set them all back down to stock speed and undervolt them all. I know that I can run my Athlon 64 at 2GHz with only 1.125 volts (stock is 1.5 volts)
Click to expand...

I have learned that as a folder you never run your computers at stock, but overclock to the max to try and get every last mhz out of your rig as possible, for more folding goodness of course.:cool: and you sure dont want RPhArrow's family freezing or any of ours, i know my rig keeps my room nice and toasty all winter long.

 
It's been so warm in AZ weather and the farm that I haven't even tested to see if the heater works this year. This should be a nice gas bill this winter. :D
 
Well elec must be a tad more expensive in Auz .My last bill for 3 months was $700.
That is with 2 A/C & 9 comp running 24/7.

It is summer prob atm.

flatout
 
RPhArrow said:
P.S. I got a call at work today... " I tried to vacuum your computer room, but the circuit breaker blew... what box do I have to turn back on to keep you in the [H]ordeBowl ?? "

Isn't that sweet ?
Click to expand...

Ow, who ever would have thought the vacuum cleaner would be the deciding factor.

The electric bills have been pretty hefty the last few months though. During the summer months I was pretty commonly hitting the $125 mark in my apartment, and that was with only 4 boxen folding full tilt. The frightening thing, during the winter month, no AC obviously, it's still around the $100 mark. At least you have a little "blackmail" material to keep them up and running! :D
 
RPhArrow said:
P.S. I got a call at work today... " I tried to vacuum your computer room, but the circuit breaker blew... what box do I have to turn back on to keep you in the [H]ordeBowl ?? "

Isn't that sweet ?
Click to expand...

Not really. I sort of wish she didn't call you. Only because I want your [H]ordeBowl boxen to stumble, so I can win this week again. :D With all these close calls I'm getting worried and greedy at the same time over these wins.

MN Scout
Lots of points...
 
This makes me glad the local rate is 7.5 cents per KWh. Decembers bill was 72.33 for the whole apartment, 24/7 folders and all :cool:
 
RPhArrow said:
P.S. I got a call at work today... " I tried to vacuum your computer room, but the circuit breaker blew... what box do I have to turn back on to keep you in the [H]ordeBowl ?? "

Isn't that sweet ?
Click to expand...

Spouses like that are definitely keepers. :D

Last month's bill was $237, down from $268 in Oct. Four folders offline again, have the worst (power-wise) running on a Kill-A-Watt to see what kind of baseline I should assume.

So far, for eight days runtime @ 13cent per kWhr, the display shows $3.12. Not too bad.

I'm trying to come up with a way to underclock the refrigerator... :p

 
p[H]ant0m said:
Ow, who ever would have thought the vacuum cleaner would be the deciding factor.
Click to expand...
Um... me... In this room there's a 20A circuit. One computer and one monitor, means you can run the vacuum without tripping the breaker; two monitors means death.

The power draw of a chip varies as the square of the speed IIRC; this means that if you overclock 20%, the power usage goes up 44%. So backing down the speeds just a little bit can have a big impact on the power usage (and, unfortunately, heat output ;)).

 
makes me glad I live in a dorm room. They charge us per semester so I can pretty much come close to draining the power grid. :D

 
magnusvir said:
makes me glad I live in a dorm room. They charge us per semester so I can pretty much come close to draining the power grid. :D
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm up to 3 comps at college, and I'm hoping for 4 next semester.

 
The most I had in my dorm room last year was 3. I've had 5 in my studio so far. I don't know what it'll take to trip my apartment yet. I'll find out someday I'm sure.

 
yay go asian families

if it's cold, put on more clothes, if it's hot use a fan :cool:

RPhArrow said:
I've decided that it is relatively expensive to heat your house with P4's ! I get billed every 2 months... Obviously the meter reader didn't believe the November reading , as my bill was $75 low (considering average) ... but they caught up this month with a $288 bill !! This caused a short discussion with my spouse.... and the decision... is.... Fold On !!! Thanks to my understanding wife ( who has her own expensive hobby.... as I discreetly pointed out...) :D
Click to expand...
ha! that's what you get for having a farm

 
Damn, I'm I'm complaining about my $75 last month. I haven't turned the heat on once in my apartment since I moved here in July. My kill-a-watt meter tells me that folding contributes to almost 40% of my bill though, so I have been thinking about shutting my Athlon XP down and just leaving my laptop folding.

I'm currently in a money saving mode in order to buy a house in the next year or two, so that is why I'm being so cheap. I didn't mind it as much when electricity was under 10 cents/kWh, but it's up around 15-16cents now. I used just over 500kWhrs last month, and folding used about 200 of those.
 
gwai lo said:
yay go asian families

if it's cold, put on more clothes, if it's hot use a fan :cool:


ha! that's what you get for having a farm

Click to expand...
Well, it takes that farm to keep up with you !! It looks like we are going to leapfrog each other as we head for the top [H]undred :)

 
I'm glad my parents pay it. :eek: Plus, the garden helps keep my cold-ass basement above freezing. Come summertime I can see myself footing my part of the bill, though, which is only fair.

What's a reputable store to order a Kill-A-Watt from?
 
RPhArrow said:
Well, it takes that farm to keep up with you !! It looks like we are going to leapfrog each other as we head for the top [H]undred :)
Click to expand...

your stupid farm is outproducing my borgs :( :p

looks like you'll be solidly outproducing soon though, from your low days don't get that low, and your high days are always about 2k, and school borgs dont run over weekends. :eek:

hmmm....need to figure out a way.....

 
I paid $186 last month, two years ago the heat bill was at $220 for the same time period. the farm keeps the whole sleeping end of the house warm, I took some 80mm fans and lined them all the way across the top of the door going from the computer room to the hall, powering them off of one of the boxen, keeps the heat moving quite nicely.

of course the AC bill in the summer makes up for the small savings in the winter.
the AC costs as much as the farm to run, but I would have to shut down way to much of the farm to do without it, in my opinion one box is way to much :D



 
The electric bill only gets around 100 bucks even in the summer with ac on... It's the gas bill we have to watch out for. this last months energy bill was 400 and last was 325. not fun.
 
I'm on budget billing for $52.00 month every month. Some months I don't use that much power and on other months I use more so it mostly evens out throughout the year. If I go over, at the end of the year, I have to make a balloon payment. If I'm under like I was this past year, the amount I'm ahead just carries over to the next year.

I've seen my electric bill go anywhere from $37/month to $70/month.

The $37/month was the bill for the month after I kicked my roommate out. At the time I had no boxen at my apartment, the A/C didn't run all day, there weren't lights on all day and the TV didn't run all day. That was a nice $20-$25/month drop in my electric.

Now that I currently have three boxen at my apartment, I'm sure the usage has gone up a bit. Lately I have cut down on the amount the heater runs. I have the thermostat turned down to around 65-67 while I'm not there and into most of the night if it's above 35 degrees outside. I prefer the temp to be around 70. This way it doesn't run much especially with the boxen going. Well, it's like that until it's time to take a shower or go to bed. I can't stand having a freezing apartment after taking a shower or when I wake up in the morning. I wish I had a more advanced thermostat will would allow me to set it to bump the temp up about twenty minutes before I have to wake up.

All I know is that come summer, I'm going to have to move the boxen to a different room. They are in the room that gets the hottest in the summer but is also the coldest in the winter. Playing musical boxen sucks, but it will save me on power and keep the overclocks where they are at. Well, at least on the boxen I'm able to overclock.

I'm also not going to worry too much about my electric bill until it goes above $75/month on average with the current money I'm making. As long as I can safely afford to raise the electric usage, I will.

 
My bill jumped $70 for about 2-3 weeks of folding. Next month is really going to suck. ;)

Maybe I'll turn it in as a charitable donation. lol


 
ElektronikSeraph said:
What's a reputable store to order a Kill-A-Watt from?
Click to expand...

I picked up one of THESE from NewEgg. $34.99 + $6.99 for 3 day shipping. They don't always have them in stock, so I just kept checking back. I'll bet you could find it cheaper on E-bay. But, I'd rather not take any chances. ;)

On a related note... Which is actually used by the power company for thier meters? Watts or VA? W=VA*PF right? I know that W=V * A. But that doesn't account for Power Factor. I'd like to add that data to the spreadsheet I have for my mini-farm.


 
GameALot said:
I picked up one of THESE from NewEgg. $34.99 + $6.99 for 3 day shipping. They don't always have them in stock, so I just kept checking back. I'll bet you could find it cheaper on E-bay. But, I'd rather not take any chances. ;)

On a related note... Which is actually used by the power company for thier meters? Watts or VA? W=VA*PF right? I know that W=V * A. But that doesn't account for Power Factor. I'd like to add that data to the spreadsheet I have for my mini-farm.


Click to expand...

I got my Kill-a-watt off ebay for about $25 shipped. It's not all aerodynamic like that funky ass thing but it works fine. :D

The power company uses kWh for residential. PF is not charged for residental customers, but from what I understand, it is used for commerial applications.
 
crazy..

thats why I just fold on the school computers

20 P4s :cool:

all folding the [H] :D
 
i wish i had all your bills, mine was 422.00. anyone wanna trade?

T-3

 
unhappy_mage said:
The power draw of a chip varies as the square of the speed IIRC; this means that if you overclock 20%, the power usage goes up 44%.
Click to expand...
No, not at all.Power varies by the square of the applied voltage. With a constant voltage and varying clock rate, it varies in a complex chip-dependent manner...but one that is much more roughly linear than exponential.
 
T-3 said:
i wish i had all your bills, mine was 422.00. anyone wanna trade?

T-3

Click to expand...
How many boxen & how many sq feet (if electric heat) are you supplying ?

RPhArrow
 
masher said:
No, not at all.Power varies by the square of the applied voltage. With a constant voltage and varying clock rate, it varies in a complex chip-dependent manner...but one that is much more roughly linear than exponential.
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks for the correction. I knew it was something like that.

 
I use to be a laptop only guy. This past week, I built a computer, and am running it, with a 2405. The first night (keep in mind I live in Canada) I head off to sleep (computer is in where I sleep).
So I am in bed, and the heat is off, never is on. And I acutally start sweating, thinking to myself, what the hell is going on. I then realize, the heat is from the comp, which I havnt had in years, since I was laptopping it.

Never use heat in my room, but I now have to keep the window open a few hours before bed, or I will roast.
 
T0pSh3lf said:
Never use heat in my room, but I now have to keep the window open a few hours before bed, or I will roast.
Click to expand...
I have the same prob. only I have 2 comps, mini-fridge, 20" TV, and an xbox running 24/7 in my room...lets just say I had to get a window fan :D

 
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