SeriousGaming101

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Mar 17, 2016
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If my electric company charges "10 cents per kilowatt hour". Then if my PC consistently draws 500 watts from the wall, this is called half-a-kilowatt/hour, correct?

1. Does it cost 5 cents per hour in electricity to run my PC?

2. Running my PC for 24 hours each day will equate to $1.2/day or $36/month?
 
Solution
There is no need to calculate. Buy a Kill-A-Watt gadget, program it with cost-per-kilowatt, leave it plugged in say for 1 week, then BAM! u will find out EXACTLY what it cost u to have that think running for a whole week, UNLESS you are in an area where utilities are cheaper during off-peak, then oooops, monkey wrench.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
  1. Your PC does NOT consistently draw 500 watts. At idle, like when you are asleep and it is simply 'on', maybe 80-90 watts. In actual hardcore use, maybe 300 watts. (Of course, we do not know your specs)
  2. Calculate electricity cost here: https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/electricity-calculator.html
For instance...
Idling for 16 hours a day (on 24 hours, you using it 8 hours, 16 hours idling), a PC that idles at 80 watts will cost $46.75 per year. $3.89/month.
Hard core use at 300 watts for 8 hours = $87.66 per year. $7.30/month.

Your actual total cost would be $11.29/month, or $134.41/year.
 
There is no need to calculate. Buy a Kill-A-Watt gadget, program it with cost-per-kilowatt, leave it plugged in say for 1 week, then BAM! u will find out EXACTLY what it cost u to have that think running for a whole week, UNLESS you are in an area where utilities are cheaper during off-peak, then oooops, monkey wrench.
 
Solution