I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).

The State of California Department of Water Resources.

California went through the most highly regulated deregulation in the history of deregulation. The traditional power companies (like SCE) were forced to sell most of their generation (keeping only hydro and nukes) and then buy power on the open market from the new owners of their old plants.

They were not allowed to do long-term contracts for power.

When the whole thing turned sour, the state had to do something fast, so the DWR did some long term contracts to bring some of those plants back into the California market (most were selling power across state lines) and stabilize prices.

DWR rates are usually lower....

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Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Only thing I ever get is rate increases......
And I think that was Wisconsin Electric.....(or We Energies as they now go by...) When they came up with that new corporate name a lot of jokes were made calling them Wienergy.....

Yup. Heard that one, but they couldn't come up with a suitable costume to let them join the sausage races at Miller Park...


http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/fan_forum/racing_sausages.jsp

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Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......

Pfffft, how old that rusty mill was ?
How about some newer models... I hope your front garden is big enough.

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_\|/_
U r s

Actually...this is what I pay.....

Energy - Off Peak (1,688 kWh x $.053260/kWh) $89.90
Energy - On Peak (741 kWh x $.215890/kWh) $159.97

I am on 'time of use' rates, where the power you use 'off peak' (at night) costs less than what you use 'on peak' (during the day}...

So the on peak use is only the crunchers.....they cost more than every else. The hot water heater and the water bed heater are locked out during the day....only the crunchers run....

I'd be an off peak cruncher if I had those rates available to me ;)

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Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......

Yeoutch!

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Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......

Yeoutch!

Yep, it was placed around 50 miles from my home.

Vestas said that it was lack of maintenance, but who has the service? :)
You figure this one out Yourself :)

During the last month we have had 4 severe storms averaging 55 gusting up to 85 knots. This is very unusual for Denmark, so I think they did not check the feather device very often. Maybe they will in the future.

When these pictures were taken the wind speed was between 60 and 70 knots, and the wind turbine should have stopped altogether when wind speed reaches 50 knots.

In 2001 when this government came into power, they started out by negating every subsidies to renewable energy sources. No wind turbines has been erected for the last two Years, and the old ones has not been replaced.
8 or 9 plants producing water filled solar collectors were deminished to 2. Arcon, which is situated 15 miles from here had to reduce staff from around 30 to a bare skeleton of 8, including the office staff. Most of the others simply went broke.

'nuff of this 'off topic' stuff :)

For info, my mediacenter cruncher has just finished its last WU and has been shut down for the time being, reducing power consumption by 325 Watts.
(Its high power consumption is due to a powerful Graphics Card for the HDTV and 2 Tuner Cards).

In the meantime the Phenom3 host is fighting its way up the ladder. This is a bare skeleton, I have even removed the Graphics card leaving only CPU, RAM and HDD. Control is through Remote Desktop, and it seems to work.

'ntill later.

ChrisD

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Three computers running 24/7.
C2Q at 160W
C2D at 148W
PentM (desktop) 78W

Seven cpu's at less than 400W. All other computers retired due to high UK electricity costs.

Note C2Q uses 12W more when the two raided data drives are in use.

ChrisD, Have to ask why so powerful a media centre, the PentM is mine, uses onboard graphics, and has dual input TV card. TV card uses about 10W, without it fitted the computer uses less than 70W when crunching.

Yeah Me too, I only used 949Kwh last month($120.86), Hopefully the New heatsinks will offset My usage somewhat(When I get them in July or so I hope). Right now I'm in economy mode though, Cold at night and slow to warm up in the daytime as I have the heat turned off, Even If It has been getting down to 36F outside late at night. :D In any case Mark I've got You beat on costs per Kwh, You do 0.40 a Kwh and I do 0.12 cents per Kwh. :)
I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).

Actually, Mark should be paying the same as me, $0.109/KWH. It was $0.106/KWH but Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) jumped up the rates. They have even asked for another rate increase this spring. At these rates, my 4 quads cost me about $15 a month, and I haven't checked the 3 Pentium Ds yet. The server is about $20 a month, but I don't know how much longer I am going to keep it on. I just might replace the 3 Ds with 1 quad and have my 5 in the basemant and be done with it.

Thru the Kill-a-watt on the server last night. It told me this morning that it will cost me $35 a month for about 35 credits per hour. OUCH!! Guess I will set it to NNT.

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Clk2HlpSetiCty:::PayIt4ward

Yeah Me too, I only used 949Kwh last month($120.86), Hopefully the New heatsinks will offset My usage somewhat(When I get them in July or so I hope). Right now I'm in economy mode though, Cold at night and slow to warm up in the daytime as I have the heat turned off, Even If It has been getting down to 36F outside late at night. :D In any case Mark I've got You beat on costs per Kwh, You do 0.40 a Kwh and I do 0.12 cents per Kwh. :)
I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).

Actually, Mark should be paying the same as me, $0.109/KWH. It was $0.106/KWH but Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) jumped up the rates. They have even asked for another rate increase this spring. At these rates, my 4 quads cost me about $15 a month, and I haven't checked the 3 Pentium Ds yet. The server is about $20 a month, but I don't know how much longer I am going to keep it on. I just might replace the 3 Ds with 1 quad and have my 5 in the basement and be done with it.

Thru the Kill-a-watt on the server last night. It told me this morning that it will cost me $35 a month for about 35 credits per hour. OUCH!! Guess I will set it to NNT.

Expensive credits there at $1 each, And Yeah OUCH indeed, My latest PC PC2 looks like It costs Me about $35-40(Sorry I don't have a Kill-a-watt device), But It has a Q6600 inside It and all three motherboards here are going to get some new heatsinks and that will be It, The old Heatsinks have power consuming TECs in them, The New ones won't. :)

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Three computers running 24/7.
C2Q at 160W
C2D at 148W
PentM (desktop) 78W

Seven cpu's at less than 400W. All other computers retired due to high UK electricity costs.

Note C2Q uses 12W more when the two raided data drives are in use.

ChrisD, Have to ask why so powerful a media centre, the PentM is mine, uses onboard graphics, and has dual input TV card. TV card uses about 10W, without it fitted the computer uses less than 70W when crunching.

I intend to replace the mainboard and the cpu in the Mediacenter. I have a GigaByrte Board, which can not run a Phenom. Running an Athlon62 X2 5600+ it still uses the same as the ASUS N2M32 Board. Seems that these Nvidia 590 chipsets are powerhungry..

Furthermore my Mediacenter has been fed crap WU's for the last 10 days, lowering the RAC to 2300. 2 hours for 36 credits stinks.

Amongst other CPUs I also have a 5600+ which is more than sufficient to do the recording and playback and even do a couple of SETI tasks on the side, but I intend to only turn it on when I need it, so SETI throughput will be limited.

The Phenom3 cruncher still needs some testing. I intend to run it without keyboad, mouse and graphics. BIOS can be told to ignore all errors. I still need to install BOINC as a Service so when the power is applied, it should just start crunching automatically. I need to find a way to force Task Manager into operation, so I can see the CPU utilization when connecting to the remote desktop.

ChrisD

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Only one of them is crunching, but I have four servers that run less than 35 watts each.

The cruncher is running NT, which is supported. It takes it forever to do a single WU, but it'd be running anyway, so it might as well crunch.

I suspect that a similar machine would make a fair video recorder/media PC.

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My powerbook portable ran on 32 watts with screen on and 28 when display was off. Obviously I left screen off when I wasn't at the keyboard. Not for the energy saving, but to keep the lamp from wearing out. New ones use LED's and probably have much longer life and lower power use as well.

On my big Mac tower it runs about 200 watts on one processor and adds about 45 with three running. Next step to all four. Since its last years model it has only four. On standby idle is uses 5-6 watts. For those who took EE or physics the power factor on the running machine is .99. That is a new requirement for power supplies I believe. Some of the older ones were really low pf. At zero the current is 90 degrees from the voltage.

duke

I'm running 12 machines at about 1 kWh total. I know the basement machines are ~650 watts measured by a 'kill-a-watt' and I'm just guessing on the other two ( P4HT and P4 ). I just ordered a quad and will probably drop a couple of machines in the basement to compensate. I told my wife I would try to stay at 1 kWH or less, give or take.

I also don't worry too much since I went 'green' everywhere else in the house. The fridge is about 4$ a month, and the lights are all CFL. I also put in extra insulation and programable thermostats.

Even you you swap out something like 1 floodlight with a CFL, thats enough for a P2/P3 or so. :-)

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Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station. - Grand Moff Tarkin

I'm running 12 machines at about 1 kWh total. I know the basement machines are ~650 watts measured by a 'kill-a-watt' and I'm just guessing on the other two ( P4HT and P4 ). I just ordered a quad and will probably drop a couple of machines in the basement to compensate. I told my wife I would try to stay at 1 kWH or less, give or take.

I also don't worry too much since I went 'green' everywhere else in the house. The fridge is about 4$ a month, and the lights are all CFL. I also put in extra insulation and programmable thermostats.

Even you you swap out something like 1 floodlight with a CFL, thats enough for a P2/P3 or so. :-)

Considering what I suspect the power the cpu heatsinks are using, It's no wonder You have 12 PCs and I have 3 yet I use almost as much power per month(949Kwh last month here for My 3 PCs). So I think I need to replace 3 TEC equipped heatsinks with 3 non TEC equipped heatsinks and sell the 3 old TEC heatsinks after their cleaned up on eBay for as much as I can(They're 2-Vigor Monsoon II heatsinks and 1-Ultra ChillTEC heatsink which are good for dual cores and not too suitable for an overclocked quad without some A/C or Swamp Cooler help). Of course getting the $148 odd dollars together will take a bit(3-Tuniq Towers), I'd sell two of the heatsinks on ebay now, But then I'd reduce My crunching by 2/3 until the replacements were installed, In addition I'm going to get 3 110cfm fans(3-120x25mm Silverstone FM121 White 110cfm fans) to replace the heatsinks stock fans and on 2 PCs replace the non stock NB heatsinks with large copper heatsinks(made for the job) and that's another $53 and change(2-SilenX IXN-40C Copper Chipset heatsinks). sigh, I'm in upgrade hell It seems. Plus I have other needed items to get and the list is at 41 lines long right now and hopefully It won't get any longer, It's bad enough I had to put on a couple items that are for the local birds to scare them off with and all(Ultrasonics w/a photocell), It's also about $3000 worth of various stuff too. In any case this will be enough for the moment as I have a whole lot of boxes that were piled up in the front bedroom to get rid of and they look like they're poised to take over the front room now as their on the sofa, in front of the sofa, next to the sofa(in a bag) and next to the TV(trash bin next stop).


The Enemy...
No idea what type of Bird It is though.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

The Enemy...
No idea what type of Bird It is though.

Looks rather like a Pine Grosbeak.

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The Enemy...
No idea what type of Bird It is though.

Looks rather like a Pine Grosbeak.

Pretty bird, But that's not It as this one has no red on It's back at all(that I could see), Just on the head and chest. Besides the Pine Grosbeak according to the link You so thoughtfully provided(nice find, thanks) doesn't get any closer than the Sierra Nevada mountains. The House Finch looks closer and It has the right coverage of the southwest and the High Desert of California. So the House Finch might be It, maybe. They look nearly identical too when seen side by side.


House Finch, House Finch on the Wikipedia

In any case, Back to topic, I'm hoping My next electric bill won't go above $176 as It's warming up around here, We actually had a day that was in the mid 70's(Ducks for cover).

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

So the House Finch might be It, maybe. They look nearly identical too when seen side by side.

Finches are pretty small (wingspan < 10"), the bird in the pic is much too big. Any way you can measure it?

In any case, Back to topic, I'm hoping My next electric bill won't go above $176 as It's warming up around here, We actually had a day that was in the mid 70's(Ducks for cover).

Wide range of temps here in SE Texas 30-80F like a yo-yo lately. Electricity bill might go up just a bit this month to $100 as I bring the new Q-Ball online and dial her in while letting the P4 Prescott drain her WU cache.

So the House Finch might be It, maybe. They look nearly identical too when seen side by side.

Finches are pretty small (wingspan < 10"), the bird in the pic is much too big. Any way you can measure it?

In any case, Back to topic, I'm hoping My next electric bill won't go above $176 as It's warming up around here, We actually had a day that was in the mid 70's(Ducks for cover).

Wide range of temps here in SE Texas 30-80F like a yo-yo lately. Electricity bill might go up just a bit this month to $100 as I bring the new Q-Ball online and dial her in while letting the P4 Prescott drain her WU cache.

Sorry but the birds are too flighty to measure:(([sarcasm]and Me without My radar gun too. ;)[/sarcasm]), Still It looks like The House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) which is a medium-sized finch of the Rosefinch genus according to the wiki at least. And Its wingspan from what I have seen is pretty small at less than 10", Ravens and Hawks are bigger(the few that ever show up), The birds in question will fit in the area of half a CD as shown below and the Bird pic I made is a closeup cut from a larger picture I took.

Sure It's not an exact match, But the male birds vary in their color a bit and males are red to one degree or another cause of the berries they eat.



The Temps around this part of California range from 20-115F, Although lately It's been from 40-75F lately and windy(I'd rather It be a little windy than not as It gets HOT with no wind here), In any case on the Electric bill I've allocated about $176 until I know what the bills really going to be like in nearly 3 weeks. :D Actually It would pay to have a Wind Turbine farm in this area as We get lots of wind and some guy down the road has both photovoltaic panels and a small wind turbine on His/Her property. I'd put one up Here, but since I don't own the land and since the lot size My house sits on is really so small, that It wouldn't be allowed by the county even If the park ok'ed It, Besides the one neighbor I have nearby would probably object to It in any case, It would be different If I had an acre of land that was mine, But that's not the case.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

I'm running 12 machines at about 1 kWh total. I know the basement machines are ~650 watts measured by a 'kill-a-watt' and I'm just guessing on the other two ( P4HT and P4 ). I just ordered a quad and will probably drop a couple of machines in the basement to compensate. I told my wife I would try to stay at 1 kWH or less, give or take.

I also don't worry too much since I went 'green' everywhere else in the house. The fridge is about 4$ a month, and the lights are all CFL. I also put in extra insulation and programmable thermostats.

Even you you swap out something like 1 floodlight with a CFL, thats enough for a P2/P3 or so. :-)

Considering what I suspect the power the cpu heatsinks are using, It's no wonder You have 12 PCs and I have 3 yet I use almost as much power per month(949Kwh last month here for My 3 PCs). So I think I need to replace 3 TEC equipped heatsinks with 3 non TEC equipped heatsinks and sell the 3 old TEC heatsinks after their cleaned up on eBay for as much as I can(They're 2-Vigor Monsoon II heatsinks and 1-Ultra ChillTEC heatsink which are good for dual cores and not too suitable for an overclocked quad without some A/C or Swamp Cooler help). Of course getting the $148 odd dollars together will take a bit(3-Tuniq Towers), I'd sell two of the heatsinks on ebay now, But then I'd reduce My crunching by 2/3 until the replacements were installed, In addition I'm going to get 3 110cfm fans(3-120x25mm Silverstone FM121 White 110cfm fans) to replace the heatsinks stock fans and on 2 PCs replace the non stock NB heatsinks with large copper heatsinks(made for the job) and that's another $53 and change(2-SilenX IXN-40C Copper Chipset heatsinks). sigh, I'm in upgrade hell It seems. Plus I have other needed items to get and the list is at 41 lines long right now and hopefully It won't get any longer, It's bad enough I had to put on a couple items that are for the local birds to scare them off with and all(Ultrasonics w/a photocell), It's also about $3000 worth of various stuff too. In any case this will be enough for the moment as I have a whole lot of boxes that were piled up in the front bedroom to get rid of and they look like they're poised to take over the front room now as their on the sofa, in front of the sofa, next to the sofa(in a bag) and next to the TV(trash bin next stop).


The Enemy...
No idea what type of Bird It is though.

It is a house finch, which surprises me because they are cavity nesters.