On Wed, 23 Dec 2009, Randy Clarksean wrote: > Power supplies are 1470W ... redundant of course. Full up operation > will draw a bit of power for sure. But, if one looks at 1.5 KW per hour > ... that is roughly $0.15 per hour to operate ... roughly $3.60 a day > ... on the order of $100 a month. If I run it for the month full out > ... pricey for what I do ... but it doesn't need to be online all the > time for what I am doing. Plus ... most of the time it will idle ... I > am guessing $30-$50 a month if I let it idle. Yep. Those are roughly the kind of numbers I was thinking you'd see. I didn't used to think about electrical costs for computers, but then a friend bought one that used so much energy that he was stunned when he saw his electric bills. I've found that some of the cheaper used hardware can consume so much more electricity that it is just not a good deal (e.g., after considering total costs for two years of operation) when compared with newer hardware that costs more up front but is more energy efficient. Of course, if you aren't paying for your own electricity, but you are paying for the machines, that changes things. Mike