Cost and Electricity Metrics while folding!

wayliff

Lifer
Nov 28, 2002
11,718
9
81
I wanted to find out how much it costs me to run the machines and how much electricity each one uses. I used a Kill-a-watt for this purpose.

Here are the results:

Cost of kWH in Florida
Count.................From Fuel...............Non-Fuel.............Total
<= 1000kW........$0.03950................$0.04748............$0.08698
> 1000kW..........$0.04950................$0.05748............$0.10698

For this test I assume my consumption falls within the first 1000kWH and I am using the average cost per kW.

CPU = CPU is continuously folding WCG
GPU = GPU is continuously folding@home
PPD Machine 1 WCG -
PPD Machine 2 WCG -

Machine 1
SPECS
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 (Deneb 45nm) @ stock
2 x 4GB DDR3 RAM
ATI Radeon HD4850 by XFX
1 x 640GB WD Hard Drive (Black Series)
1 x 1TB WD Hard Drive (Black Series)
2 x NEC DVD-RW ATA Devices
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64

RESULTS
Consumption.....Idle...............CPU...............CPU+GPU
kWH................0.10526.........0.18234.........0.21391
kW x 1 day......2.52624.........4.37616..........5.13384
kW x 30 days...75.7872.........131.2848........154.0152

Cost................Idle...............CPU...............CPU+GPU
kWH...............$0.00916.......$0.01586........$0.01861
kW x 1 day......$0.22............$0.38.............$0.45
kW x 30 days...$6.59............$11.42.............$13.40
PPD/$ 1 day........................

Machine 2
SPECS
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ BE (Brisbane 65nm) @ 3.0Ghz
2 x 2GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon HD3850 by Sapphire
1 x 640GB Samsung HM640JJ Hard Drive (2.5")
Asus DVD-RW ATA Device
Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64

RESULTS
Consumption.....Idle...............CPU...............CPU+GPU
kWH................0.09244.........0.14666.........0.17695
kW x 1 day......2.21856.........3.51984..........4.2468
kW x 30 days...66.5568.........105.5952.........127.404

Cost................Idle...............CPU...............CPU+GPU
kWH...............$0.00804.......$0.01276........$0.01539
kW x 1 day......$0.19............$0.31.............$0.37
kW x 30 days...$5.79............$9.18.............$11.08
PPD/$ 1 day........................

Hopefully I did it right! I thought this might be interesting!

Second Edit: I'm surprised the cost of running the GPU is not more....hmmm.
Third Edit: Corrected cost per kWH.
 
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petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,343
1,138
126
Well, it would be very interesting to calculate the cost as in ppd/$, i.e. take your ppd for each computer and divide it by the dollar amount for one day - or for a week or a year ...
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,250
3,845
75
I think you're supposed to add the fuel and non-fuel costs. Here in CO, the total is ~12 cents/kWH. Less than 10 is rare, from what I hear.

In Florida, also consider the cost of A/C to pump that amount of heat out. Unless you have a ground-source heat pump (Peter, want to weigh in on that?), that's likely to be at least 70&#37; of the direct electricity consumption, and could easily be more than 100% of it.
 

wayliff

Lifer
Nov 28, 2002
11,718
9
81
I think you're supposed to add the fuel and non-fuel costs. Here in CO, the total is ~12 cents/kWH. Less than 10 is rare, from what I hear.

I will look at my power bill and make sure. I will update later.

Peter - ppd == points per day?
 

wayliff

Lifer
Nov 28, 2002
11,718
9
81
I think you're supposed to add the fuel and non-fuel costs. Here in CO, the total is ~12 cents/kWH. Less than 10 is rare, from what I hear.

In Florida, also consider the cost of A/C to pump that amount of heat out. Unless you have a ground-source heat pump (Peter, want to weigh in on that?), that's likely to be at least 70% of the direct electricity consumption, and could easily be more than 100% of it.

You were right. I've corrected the cost per kWH. Thanks for pointing out!
 

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,343
1,138
126
I will look at my power bill and make sure. I will update later.

Peter - ppd == points per day?

@wayliff: Yes.

@Ken_g6: A ground source heat pump does not work very well in cooling - I get less than 30% efficiency when cooling, more than 85% when heating ...
 

wayliff

Lifer
Nov 28, 2002
11,718
9
81
Well, it would be very interesting to calculate the cost as in ppd/$, i.e. take your ppd for each computer and divide it by the dollar amount for one day - or for a week or a year ...

ok it's been added...

edit: I removed the values as I'm trying to figure out how to add my machines to boincstats.
 
Last edited:

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,343
10,046
126
I recently borrowed some KAW meters, and hooked them up to my desktop rig.

Q9300 @ 3.0, stock voltage, GTX460 1GB (715Mhz stock OC), and a KDS 26" LCD.

LCD: 59-63W
Idle at desktop: 96W
F@H GPU: 194W
OCCT PSU test: 353W (CPU overheated > 85C! GPU temp was like 83-84C)

I pay $0.15 per KWh.

I get 10K PPD in F@H on the GPU.