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That's very strange. Sawnee EMC will credit any overage to your next
bill. However, if you come up short, they'll want the difference.<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
On 6/25/2011 9:48 AM, Drifter wrote:
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<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">I would urge one and all to
stay away -- FAR away -- from Ga. Power's "Budget Billing service." The
company, in cahoots with the <<span style="font-style: italic;">insert
adjective of choice</span>> Public Service Commission has rigged
this "feature" to steal your money. The annual contract specifies in
the fine print that if the company over estimates the charges, they
KEEP your money. You don't get it back! Which means, of course, that
they have a HUGE incentive to over estimate your electric bill. I
discovered this painful fact when they offered to reduce our monthly
payment by more than 20% after the first year in our current house. So
I went back and totaled up the previous 12 bills and discovered that we
had overpaid by nearly $300. When I asked for the money back, I was
told, "Sorry, Charlie; the contract says we keep it."</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">BUT . . . You can do the
math yourself and not waste your money. Ga. Power is perfectly willing
to let you overpay your monthly bill most of the year to build up a
credit pool to apply to the summer months. That's what we are doing now
and it is working well.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">Sean</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">On Friday, June 24, 2011
08:14:01 pm Ron Frazier wrote:</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> I've had some similar
thoughts and concerns with my PC equipment, as</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> well as several fans
and air cleaners, etc. that I have. Here are some</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> things to consider.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> You may wish to
consider budget billing, which will make your payment</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> the same each month.
It won't reduce consumption though. If the</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> budget amount is too
low, and if the winter or summer is particularly</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> harsh, you may get a
big bill at the end of the year for any shortage.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> However, in general, I
like the same payment all the time concept.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> The Kill-a-Watt device
was mentioned in the thread. I particularly</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> like the Kill-a-Watt
EZ, available from Home Depot and others for</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> about $30. It has a
neat feature that can calculate the time a device</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> has been on and show
you accumulated energy usage, as well as</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> instantaneous usage.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> Here's how you can
gauge the impact of running any device. Be</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> especially wary of any
device which runs 24 hours / day, as the</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> kilowatt-hours add up
quickly. Here's what it would cost for each 100</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> watts of consumption
on a 24 hour / day basis. Using 100 W (or .1 KW)</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> for 1 hour is .1 KWH
or kilowatt-hours. The national average cost for</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> 1 KWH is about $ 0.10.
So:</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> .1 KW * 24 HR / Day *
30 Days / Month = 72 KWH / Month. 72 KWH / Month</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> * $ 0.10 / KWH = $
7.20 / Month to run a 100 W device all the time.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> With electronic
equipment, this can really add up. My laptops</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> typically pull about
30 - 50 W of power, so they cost about $ 2 - 3 /</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> Month to run all the
time. My desktop, plus a couple of monitors (one</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> is my wife's), pull
about 300 W, so running that all the time costs</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> about $ 21 / Month.
You can use this type of math to gauge what type</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> of equipment you want
to run and for how long. Those air cleaners I</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> mentioned pull about
50 W and so they cost about $ 3 / Month to run</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> all the time.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> Sincerely,</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> Ron</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> On 6/4/2011 12:30 PM,
David Hillman wrote:</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > Our electric bill
went up by $15 last month. Either Georgia Power is</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > passing on some
extra fees or we have to look at how we can use</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > electricity more
efficiently. Right now we have 3 laptops and 4</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > desktops that are
plugged in mostly all the time. One of the laptops</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > (Macbook Pro) is
usually plugged into a 21" NEC monitor pretty much</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > all the time. One
of the desktops is a dual 604 pin Xeon server with</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > 4 hard
drives--that's our VM server. The other desktop is a P4</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > Prescott machine
that acts as a security gateway appliance--it's</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > running Untangle
8. The last desktop is a Core 2 Duo 2.66 Ghz</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > machine for
general use and media serving. Is that too much.? I</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > was contemplating
adding an old HP 4U server to the mix, but I</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > thought better of
it. My latest trip to Fry's had me thinking</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > about replacing
all of the servers with some of those Mini-ITX</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > boards.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > However, some of
the boards feel pretty cheap and the others have</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > way</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > more stuff than I
need. Supermicro has a couple of dual Atom</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > Mini-ITX server
boards, but they are pretty expensive. You get what</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > you pay for with
those boards, though.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > I was thinking it
would be a good idea for someone to make a Mini-ITX</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > server board with
reconfigurable pin headers (future expansion), a</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > couple of USB
ports, and maybe 5 or so PCI-E x1 slots. The PCI-E</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > slots can later
be filled with a couple of LAN cards and a RAID card.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > Some of the
boards should have silent Atom chips and the others</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > should have 775
sockets. There are a lot Core 2 Duo chips that could</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > be reused for
light server use. We have about 5 Dell machines in our</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > office with dead
motherboards, but perfectly functioning C2D chips.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > Even better, make
them compatible with CoreBoot (LinuxBIOS).</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> > What do y'all
think?</p>
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