I live 8 miles from a nuclear plant in Minnesota. Cost is $.064 per kWH and additional .00122 for Federal Enviromental Clean-up and .0009 for State Enviromental Improvement. Still costs me a boatload because I have Kentsfield @ 3.95 ghz and Conroe at 4.2 ghz 24/7 both on phase change. I figure cost is probably $80 per month on those machines.

Holy Frijoles! I thought an electric bill over 200 USD was bad. It's never been over 300. That's for a 4000 SQ FT house with full direct sun exposure during the worst of the summer heat with the a/c on. I figure the incremental of the computer is a nit. Well, I DID think it was pretty well insulated. I've lost power in the winter and, with sub-freezing temps outside, it's still been in the upper 40s F in the house 24 hours later. I do need to replace the thermostat-controlled vent fan in the attic. That would knock the cost down another 7-10%. Nothing fancy but I do keep the storm windows on year-round.

Good to see a couple of fellow Minnesotans. We have a somewhat good mix of energy here, Some nuclear, some coal and the wind project on Buffalo Ridge, one of the places where the wind blows steady almost year round. Moderately priced for the most part. Would love to see some of the wind and nuclear converted to hydrogen via off peak conversion. Coal is cheap, but adds too much CO2 to the atmosphere. Global warming has even had its effects here. This year was one of the later hard frosts. But I ramble off topic. The cost to keep one computer running about 18 hours a day is not too great. Just replacing some of the lighting with fluorescent makes a difference. The biggest energy hog I think is the electric water heater, not to mention kids running in and out and leaving the door open. Even if I had a bunch of computers running, their cost would be only a small portion of my total bill.

Keep crunching

Sgt. Joe

Work pays the energy bill for all of the PCs I have running there. Not sure they know about the extra 10 or so "old" PCs I still have crunching in a closet but nobody's raised an eyebrow yet :)

True 'dat.

As a fellow minnesotan I agree -- multi-tasked electric use is the way to go! My rigs keep me warm at night in the winter, and let me set the thermostat lower than without them running!