Folding Costs in Electricity for a Quarter

[Zak33]

Lo guys.

I've been waiting for a bill to see what FOLDING at night costs. Almost every night of the last quarter of 07 my PC was folding. Basically, can Economy 7 use justify folding? (Enviromentally it can't...it's the same CO2 either way....but economically, I pay the bill... & so do you guys, os it's a consideration)

I did fold a bit at night last quarter but not much.

I made sure the only extra use at night was my PC. We always set the dishwasher to come on after midnight, so the only other thing was the PC running F@H

Summer time and Winter time are irrelevant because lighting is the same after midnight.

Heating in my house is gas, and while there is an electric pump, it's not on at those times.

SO....... can my PC running, folding all night, be priced sensibly?

Using two electric bills, and looking at ONLY the Economy 7 part of the bill (midnight to 7am)

It's cost me £6.30 inc tax for 101 days.

So that's £2.10 per month.

There you go.....it does use a fair bit of elec, but on economy 7, which is less that half normal daytime price, it costs me about 6p per night. (101 days)

[Zak33]

Forget that...it's cheaper than that....much cheaper.

My other half, the clever one, has just pointed out that I DO have something else running too...I have TWO electricity heaters set to come on low....at mightnight....one for the boy's room in case it rops below 12c and one in the living room for those 6am starts with him.

That's prolly more than half.

OK...gutted that my experiment is now shafted BUT those heaters (oil filled Delonghi) are 500w and 1000w, sp my PC must be a small part.

Bugger...but it does make it VERY cheap to fold.

[Fraz]

fridge...freezer...?

[Zak33]

same ones, never varied those. I'm presuming the electricity overheads of my house stayed the same

Sadly....as I'm a numpty, I totally forgot my two heaters that i PLUGGED IN ON OCTOBER but that was beginning of my experiment.
However....my night time costs have only gone up by the £6.30 with both of those and the PC on, so all's well.

[Fraz]

Surely it's easier to just work it out? On the stupid pre-pay meter I have to use, I get charged 10.67 pence per kWh, with a daily charge of 12.40 pence.

Running all out on the CPU, my computer uses ~200 Watts.

So, for 24 hours a day for 90 days, my computer uses 432 kWh

Standing charge = 90 * £0.124 = £11.16
Charge for 432 kWh = 432 * £0.1067 = £46.09

Quarterly charge for me is then £57.24

Certainly seems a lot more than your calculation. Maybe I've gone wrong somewhere or misunderstood my rates...

[Zak33]

nah.....my whole 4 bedroom house, for 101 days of autumn and winter costs me £150. Thats for three months, electric cooker, microwave, bottle warmers and other baby things, lights, fridges, freezers, tv's, 3 PC's, DVD's, timers, outdoor lights with sensors, house alarms, heaters etc

The night time part of my bill is £12.11 total for the whole quarter.

My kwH rate is 2.31 pence at night

[Fraz]

Well, that's what it would cost me. But my rates suck.

[SiM]

Also remember not all PC draw the same amount of power...

[Jay]

I have stopped dedicated folding systems as I think the pollution they cause out ways their benefit. I fold on systems they need to be on for business use etc. Maybe if you had Q6600 it may be worth it but i'm not 100% sure on this either.

[Fraz]

Also remember not all PC draw the same amount of power...

Yes, but our PCs are broadly the same. I expect Zak's uses a bit less juice than mine.

[Zak33]

mines a Quad running on a 400w PSU, though it doesnt use all of that by ay stretch.

Jay....you are right. CO2 is up for using it, cost or no cost.

[Jay]

I fold on my network users PCs

Its fantastic becuase you can also see how long each person has been in the office!

[Fraz]

I have stopped dedicated folding systems as I think the pollution they cause out ways their benefit.

The benefits being medical => more people => more pollution producers.

Why are you bothering at all?

[Jay]

may as well use the wasted cycles that the PCs are creating while they are running. Folding is about using up wasted cycles, nor creating cycles to fold with.

[Fraz]

may as well use the wasted cycles that the PCs are creating while they are running. Folding is about using up wasted cycles, nor creating cycles to fold with.

The concept of "wasted" cycles is somewhat blurry when you throw in the power-saving features of CPUs though...

[Jay]

well none of the PCs have this option.