NerdHerder Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 I've recently been presented with a fairly unique renting opportunity. In order to be fair to both parties, I'm trying to work out exactly what I should be paying. One thing I'm not sure about is how much it costs p/month to run my PC. I'm running a Corsair VS650 power supply, but of course it's pretty rare that the system will actually hit 650W. Because of this, I'm not entirely sure how to calculate the monthly running costs. I'm running the following setup: i7 4790 3.6Ghz 32GB RAM (4 x 8 DRR3) GeForce GTX970 4GB 1 x SSD 4 x HDD 7200RPM 3 x 27" LED monitors Of course, an exact figure is going to be pretty hard to pin down, but could anyone suggest a ballpark figure, so I'm able to simply round up slightly to make sure I'm covered? I live in the UK, if that's any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZakO Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 How many hours is it actually under any significant load? If it's just sat idle most of the time it's not going to cost much. Also this is basically impossible to estimate unless we know your energy price/tariff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritBronco Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 https://www.ukpower.co.uk/tools/running_costs_electricity these guys have a calculator you can try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NerdHerder Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 27 minutes ago, ZakO said: How many hours is it actually under any significant load? If it's just sat idle most of the time it's not going to cost much. Also this is basically impossible to estimate unless we know your energy price/tariff. Maybe 4-5 at most? Probably even less for the most part. During the day I'm mostly using it for 3D work (which to be honest, isn't really that demanding on the hardware- most rendering is done offsite) and webdev. I'll probably use it for gaming in the evenings for around 4 hours, which is the only time there's real heavy load. Just asked and I THINK it'll be at a flat rate of 14.43p per kWh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Power Cost = Power Used * kWh Rate The kWh rate is easy to figure out obviously, and you can even Google it. For example, the USA average is 6.67¢/kWh. You can make an educated guess for your power usage. Or make a graph showing various options, perhaps in 50W increments. Your PC probably pulls around 100W when idle. 75W for the GPU, 5W for each HDD, and a few extras for everything else. Let's say around 400-450W when you fully load your system. Over a 24hr period, let's say your average usage is 150W. This will vary depending on if you leave your PC on all the time or do a lot of heavy gaming. Your PSU is 80-85% efficient meaning that power in is 15-20% greater than power out. For (150W * 1.15) hourly average usage at $0.07/kWh, you'll have a daily consumption of about $0.29. Multiply that by 30 days and you get about $8.70. Worst case of 450W all day is about $27. So you can gather a basic idea from those two data points. Tomoko 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoko Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) You could get one of these to measure exactly how much it is using, then you can calculate based on what you pay for power. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071NZ53WR/ref=psdc_1938287031_t1_B01DSQ30FO Edited March 12, 2018 by Rigby goretsky and DrunknMunky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossCheck Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 if there is just 2 of you sharing a place, everything should be shared 50/50 regardless of how much energy is consumed Tomoko and Salty Wagyu 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoko Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) 58 minutes ago, CrossCheck said: if there is just 2 of you sharing a place, everything should be shared 50/50 regardless of how much energy is consumed I agree with this. There's no way to keep track of exactly how much electricity each person is using for every single thing in the house. While the idea of each of you paying for what you use might sound fair I think it's probably just going to end up causing arguments and hard feelings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NerdHerder Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 4 hours ago, Rigby said: You could get one of these to measure exactly how much it is using, then you can calculate based on what you pay for power. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071NZ53WR/ref=psdc_1938287031_t1_B01DSQ30FO I think that might actually be easiest to be honest, at least then I can get a reading for idling/working on less intensive stuff and when it's running a heavier load. 2 hours ago, Rigby said: I agree with this. There's no way to keep track of exactly how much electricity each person is using for every single thing in the house. While the idea of each of you paying for what you use might sound fair I think it's probably just going to end up causing arguments and hard feelings. 3 hours ago, CrossCheck said: if there is just 2 of you sharing a place, everything should be shared 50/50 regardless of how much energy is consumed Ah unfortunately it's not quite as simple as a 50/50 setup- it'd be just me, living in a fairly large annex attached to the side of my families house. It's effectively an entirely separate house, barring one connecting fire door that I've already sealed/soundproofed and locked from my side. They basically want me to cover roughly the cost of me living in there (We're estimating around £200 a month in total, but I'm not sure how accurate that is), and that's it. As a graduate with currently zero cash, I can't see myself finding a better opportunity to have my own home/space in the near future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoko Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) 25 minutes ago, NerdHerder said: Ah unfortunately it's not quite as simple as a 50/50 setup- it'd be just me, living in a fairly large annex attached to the side of my families house. It's effectively an entirely separate house, barring one connecting fire door that I've already sealed/soundproofed and locked from my side. They basically want me to cover roughly the cost of me living in there (We're estimating around £200 a month in total, but I'm not sure how accurate that is), and that's it. As a graduate with currently zero cash, I can't see myself finding a better opportunity to have my own home/space in the near future! Oh I see. That meter should work for figuring out your PCs power usage but I assume you'll have other things like AC and heating, appliances, etc. Maybe you could compare their power bill a month after you start living there to their previous bills and see how much they increase. Switching to LED bulbs if you haven't yet and shutting down your computer (and lights, TV, etc) when not in use can help lower your bill a lot. CrossCheck and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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