Estimating power costs for always-on electronics: The 11.4 Cent Rule

I'm looking forward to getting more information about this topic, don't worry about negative opinions.

It's misleading to simply say the'baseline retail' since none of us pay that. We pay THE DELIVERED PRICE ! Divide that out and you'll see that 15 cents /kwh is the true average. Ok, while I'm on a mini rant, who here is old enough to remember 110/220 V ? In the interim the design center was 115 then 117 V. Then we woke up one day and it was 120/240. Did anyone ask you? They didn't ask me! An engineer buddy of mine figured out that just as the dentists of the world are in cahoots with the candy companies(!) the power companies are in cahoots with the light bulb companies. I know people in LA County who tell me they are getting 128-132V at their wall outlet.

"A pint's a pound the whole world round" is not one I'm familiar with and I'd say it's a very poor example, given that the US pint is 16 ounces and the UK pint is 20 ounces, so the "whole world round" aspect is clearly incorrect :-) A litre's a kilo would be more useful, which results in a cubic metre of water being equal to one metric tonne.

I'm using one of those TMS430 microwatt standby power controller chips for a 1000 watt room heater IR remote receiver. I find it very important to limit power consumption while the unit sits in the closet over the summer.

You should really use the incremental cost of the power, which, in No. CA, can be higher than $0.35/kwh. This way you know what added costs you incur when you add something that uses additional electricity.

But, did you add all of the other charges to your baseline? My baseline is about .10631 per kwh, but add in the taxes, fixed charges, etc and it''s really .1274. So leaving in my new cellphone charger all the time will cost me about $1.12 per year as opposed to the grief I''ll have when I plug in my phone to recharge and find my phone without power when I need it.

The cost of a kwh varies by region and by season. For example, in VT, we paid .07 per kwh in the summer, and .14 in the winter. (The impact of Quebec Hydro as a major source.) Here in NJ, where I just did a relamping project to save my church 30,000 kwh a year, it costs us $.134 winter and $.22 in the Summer! So, the summer rule would be "Two Thumbs". My clamp-on ammeter and I are on the warpath, chasing down passive energy sinks.

This is interesting. Your thumb figure is average". But, the power companies are taking lessons from the airlines and the telecom service providers: screw the customer every chance you get. So, you might pay 11.4 cents average, but you pay 16 cents during peak, and you pay 9 cents in off peak. In the future, you will pay more on Mondays and less on fridays. You will pay more if the moon is in Capricorn, or the sun is is shining on the southern hemisphere more than the northern hemisphere. The point is...that the 11.4 cent thumb figure will be antiquated, especially when we get the "smart grid". Smart grid is just like deep packet inspection for telecoms..just another mechanism for them to raise prices. In these unpredictable times, the one thing that is certain....is that thumb figures will get you in trouble.

Ran out of stuff to talk about this week, eh??