Came across another question on the Internet about the cost of running a computer at home.
So I was thinking, "Hey! If nobody has created a calculator yet, it's going to be me!"
It turned out that there was already an online electricity usage/cost calculator from National Energy Efficiency Committee (NEEC).
Cool.
Let's see. I've a Mac Pro and Dell 2405 drawing 250W and 60 W respectively. They run an average of 12 hours per day. The hours should be pretty accurate as I get my numbers from world community grid.
Then there's another iMac at home which runs 9 on average hours per day at 180W.
After punching in the numbers, the total computing bill comes up to roughly SGD41.51. Roughly because I couldn't enter the exact power consumption that's actually used.
Here's a break down.
iMac 180W for 9 hours - SGD14.64
Dell 2405 60W for 12 hours - SGD4.89
Mac Pro 250W for 12 hours - SGD20.35
Router & modem 10W for 24 hours - SGD1.63
Grand total - SGD41.51
If I were to replace the Mac Pro with the Macbook Pro running at $9.78 per month on 60W, my grand total will be $30.94. In a year, that's a savings of around $120.
My previous Mac Mini (85W) with a 17" LCD(60W) running at a total of around 150W at 9 hours cost $9.16. That's $5 less than the current iMac.
For a Core 2 Duo Mac mini (110W), I run that together with my Dell LCD at 12 hours, it will be $9.37 + 4.89 = $14.26. Also I'll be saving about $11 per month if I run on a Mac Mini. That's $132 savings in a year.
This is a very useful website.