How many people are calculating their electricity costs incorrectly?

[RawDepth]

I was once confused about this as a rookie and I've recently had some friends that were confused about it. I just wanted to help clarify it for others. I live in the US, so this is how I calculate my electricity costs.

The simplest method to find your actual cost per kilowatt hour, (kWh,) is to divide the total monthly electric bill, (amount due,) by the number of kilowatt hours charged in the billing cycle.

Example:
My total household electric bill for last month was $143.15 (US).
You can subtract the meter readings from one another to find the number of kWh's used. Sometimes bills are estimated, but the number of hours billed should be clearly stated. Mine was 1142.
$143.15 ÷ 1142 = $0.12535

NOTE: Don't make the mistake of using the "Price to Compare" as printed on the bill. This may not include distribution charges, taxes, and fees.

In order to break out how much your mining rig is truly costing you, (or your mom,) you first need to know the wattage draw of your rig. For example, I have 3 GPU's, (1 GTX1070 and 2 GTX1080's). I have a wattage/amp meter plugged into my mining computer that displays Watts. It seems to always read between 600 and 700 Watts, depending on which coins I am mining. I'll use 650 watts as an average per hour. You can use published numbers from hardware components as long as you include all hardware in the rig.

Take the constant number of Watts being drawn from the wall outlet and divide it by 1000. This converts Watt Hours into Kilowatt Hours (kWh). Then multiply that by 24 hours per day, then by 30 average days per month, then by your cost per kWh.

In my Example:
650 ÷ 1000 = 0.65 (kWh)
0.65 X 24 = 15.6 (kWh per day)
15.6 X 30 = 468 (kWh per month)
468 X 0.12535 = $58 (actual cost per mo.)

We can conclude that if you are not mining your electricity cost, (or more,) in coin each month, you are mining at a loss. Mining at a loss, such as in my case, can still be justified if your plans are to hold all coins until the market recovers. That profit may come at a later date.

Hope this helps.

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[1715423009]

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[areyouathief]

Take the constant number of Watts being drawn from the wall outlet and divide it by 1000. This converts Watt Hours into Kilowatt Hours (kWh). Then multiply that by 24 hours per day, then by 30 average days per month, then by your cost per kWh.

In my Example:
650 ÷ 1000 = 0.65 (kWh)
0.65 X 24 = 15.6 (kWh per day)
15.6 X 30 = 468 (kWh per month)
468 X 0.12535 = $58 (actual cost per mo.)

just because you use word: incorrectly... It should be:

"Take the constant number of Watts being drawn from the wall outlet and divide it by 1000. This converts Watt into Kilowatt (KW)." - you just can't change into different unit type of measure, by multiplying/dividing by a number.

650W ÷ 1000 = 0.65 (kW)
0.65kW x 24h = 15.6 (kWh per day)

[adaseb]

In my area the way electricity costs per kwh and electricity costs to deliver the power to you are calculated independently.

Basically there are fixed costs and variable costs. Usually the variable costs are the electricty cost per kwh, however the fixed costs are the delivery charges. These are usually fixed and even if you use 0 kwh in a single month you will still be charged them.

So if you want an accurate way, you can't divide your entire bill, you just need to find the formula they use for the fixed costs (it varies slightly by a 1-2 cent per kwh) and the variable costs which are easy to calculate.

[bakermining76]

Each place I've lived in the US, the electric company had a base charge of some sort + charges for usage. Unless you have a separate meter specifically for mining, the only thing that matters is the usage charges. If you have a separate meter for mining, the base charge is irrelevant when determining whether or not to add cards/rigs/ASICs.

[fullzero]

Electric bills tend to include many different rates for many different time periods for many different tiers with different taxes included in each.

For this reason using anything but the actual electric bill and doing the following is likely to be incorrect.

Look at your bill:

I have used a hypothetical 4314 usage, $743.52 bill total and 33 day bill period.


  Usage: 4314

  Bill period (Number of Days on the bill): 33

  Bill Total: $743.52

  

  How kWh Cost is Calculated:

  kWh Cost = Bill Total / Usage

  This Bill:

  0.17 = 743.52 / 4314


  4x Rigs electric usage; 53 average per cpu, and 130 for 1070s and 100 for 1060s mining rvn.

  53 130 130 130 130 130 130  53 130 130 130 130 130 130  

  53 130 130 130 130 130 130  53 100 100 100 100 100  


  Mining Electric Cost:

  $410.92 = ( 3.052 * 24 * 33 ) * 0.17



I made tool which calculates all of this automatically when you input:

 Usage:

 Number of Days:

 Bill Total:

I will incorporate it into openrig.net soon.

[RawDepth]

just because you use word: incorrectly... It should be:

"Take the constant number of Watts being drawn from the wall outlet and divide it by 1000. This converts Watt into Kilowatt (KW)." - you just can't change into different unit type of measure, by multiplying/dividing by a number.

650W ÷ 1000 = 0.65 (kW)
0.65kW x 24h = 15.6 (kWh per day)

The key word in that sentence was "constant". If a 650 W rig is mining steadily for one hour, then that rig will have used 650 Wh of energy. I didn't see the need to split hairs on explaining the method for arriving at that number. Thus, I am converting Wh into kWh by dividing, not W.

It should read...
650Wh ÷ 1000 = 0.65 (kWh)
0.65kWh x 24h = 15.6 (kWh per day)

Thanks for your help.

[RawDepth]

In my area the way electricity costs per kwh and electricity costs to deliver the power to you are calculated independently.

Basically there are fixed costs and variable costs. Usually the variable costs are the electricty cost per kwh, however the fixed costs are the delivery charges. These are usually fixed and even if you use 0 kwh in a single month you will still be charged them.

So if you want an accurate way, you can't divide your entire bill, you just need to find the formula they use for the fixed costs (it varies slightly by a 1-2 cent per kwh) and the variable costs which are easy to calculate.

Oh, wow! Good point. I've never had a bill that had fixed costs. In my area, all charges are variable based on usage.

Generation is billed at $0.0571 per kWh
Transmission is billed at $0.0133 per kWh
Distribution is billed at $0.0433 per kWh

Add in a few taxes and fees and you arrive at $0.125 overall.

I guess there is no universal simple method for everyone.