[mythtv-users] Cost of running devices 24/7

[Steve Heistand]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:49:13 -0400, jansenj wrote
> I was curious the other day and wanted to know how much it costs per year
> for some of the electronic devices I have.  Maybe someone with a kill-a-watt
> can tell me if my rule of thumb is remotely accurate.  I'm just too cheap to
> go out and get a kill-a-watt, but I probably should get one.  The numbers I
> ran assuming about an 11cent/kwh gave me the following rule of thumb for
> devices running 24/7...like myth.
> 
> Replace the unit of watts with dollars and that how much it costs to operate
> the device per year if the device uses that power rating 24/7.  So if you
> have a device that CONSUMES 5W nominally, its costs close to $5/year to
> operate that device 24/7. If your whole mythbox uses a minimum of 50W, it
> costs at least $50/year to operate.
> 
> I thought it was an interesting how the numbers came out to give me that
> rule of thumb.
> 
> Obviously you can't rely on power supply wattage ratings of you computer,
> but when comparing idle wattages between two products, the rule of thumb may
> come in handy.  Obviously some states are higher than others, thats why I
> call it a rule of thumb.
> 
> <OT> The reason for the thought process, I'm trying to figure out what my
> options are for photo and video sharing with family and backup.
> 1. I could poke a hole through the firewall and share them via my
> mythbackend...but I don't usually worry about security as a whole on that
> box...
> 2. Try to find an uber efficient computer to serve up a web page and act as
> a local file server for that media.
> 3. Pay to use sharing services.  I haven't found any free services that
> offer unlimited storage for this media, and yet allow others to download
> full res content.  Currently I use google picasaweb due to its easy
> integration with picasa, but I'm constantly having to cycle through and
> delete albums due to a 1GB limit.
> </OT>

5W * 24 * 30 / 1000 = 3.6 units your electric bill is in.

price per this varies greatly. my base here in CA is $0.14
up to $0.44 per since I have a lot of stuff on 24/7.

so 5W on all the time is ~1$/month

"Why is it so hot inside this handbasket?"
--
Steve Heistand
steve at heistand.org