How much power really…
So I’ve been running my own servers for various things for awhile, and I always wanted to know how much power something like that would be drawing out of my pocket for some time. So recently while cleaning up my bookmarks, I came across this website: How much electricity do computers use? Using the formula there I decided to do my own calculations and to help you guys out here’s how you can calculate how much of a hole your computer puts in your wallet.
Watts x Usage Hours
1000
Now that you have that number multiply it by the amount you get charged for electricity per kWh. To find this simply grab your power bill and divide the daily use in dollars by the daily use in kWh.
Here’s an example of my own:
Dell Dimension E510 – (106.28 – 164.68)
Lower Estimate
106.28 * 8760 =Â 931,012.8
(8760 is how many hours there are in a year, because my E510 is on 24/7)
931,012.8/1000 =Â 931.0128kWh
(You divide by 1000 to go from watts to kilowatts)
931.0128 * .23 =Â $214.132944/year
214.132944/12 = $17.844412/month
Upper Estimate
 164.68 * 8760 = 1,442,596.80
 1,442,596.80/1000 = 1,442.5968 kWh
 1,442.5968 * .23 = $331.797264/year
331.797264/12 =Â $27.649772/month
Now keep in mind when you calculate how much your electric company charges you, this is the average for the billing cycle. Out here in California (at least in Los Angeles) depending on how much power you use is how much you get charged. There is a structured power scheme something like this:
1-00 = $0.10
100-200 = $0.15
200+ = $0.20
Those numbers I have made up, if you look at your power bill you will see what I’m talking about more clearly….