Cost to run my desktop

Tonight I decided to plug my Kill-A-Watt into the outlet my computer* is plugged into just to see how much it costs to run it. Conclusion–it costs less than I thought.

According to Maine.gov delivery rates, it costs 6.76 cents per kWh (average residential rate). Right now my Kill-A-Watt has been running for about an hour and is registering 0.15 kWh and my computer is idle (minus my time right now posting this article).

All else equal, ($0.0676kWh * 0.15kWh) * 24hrs/day * 30days/month = $7.3008 or ~$7.30 a month. Of course I don’t run my computer 24×7 so my actual cost is a lot less.

What I want to do, to get a more accurate reading, is to plug my computer and LCD monitor into the same surge strip that will be plugged into the Kill-A-Watt and run Folding@Home 24×7 for a day or two. This would give me a good idea as to what it would cost per month under full computing load.

Just FYI, if you live in Maine and don’t want to shell out the cash for a Kill-A-Watt, go to your local library and check one out for free! This is a program being run by Efficiency Maine to help push Mainers to be more energy conscientious. My girlfriend was slightly irritated after she bought me one for Christmas and we found out about the Kill-A-Watts at the local library

* It is not just my computer that is plugged into this outlet. I also have Samsung 17″ wide screen LCD, a Cannon USB LIDE scanner, and a HP DeskJet color printer. My computer itself has the following hardware: AMD 5000+ BE (OC’d from 2.8Ghz to 3.01Ghz) w/2GB RAM, a 320GB Seagate HDD, and a nVidia 9600GT OC.