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RE: [datacenter] Understanding power billing
On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Eric Fullar wrote:
It depends on your utility and how much power you use. Our electric bill
here in Eugene has three or four components:
Similar here, basic charge, delivery charge, "demand" charge.
But I'd like to back up a bit. We're not charging for power, I'm just
looking to make sure that we are figuring out our pricing correctly and
not left holding the bag.
Backing up even more, I really don't understand the whole "kilowatt hour"
metering scheme. If anyone has a link to a good explanation of that, I'd
appreciate it.
I've found that the most reliable way to get electrical usage measurements
is to have an electrician put an ammeter on each circuit at the panel. To
figure out the actual power used, you'll need to measure power factor as
well. If you have a lot of the same kind of equipment, you can measure a
typical configuration and do the arithmetic. Seasonic makes a nifty little
meter you can use yourself to do this (
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1704 ) .
We're just a little shop, so I just bring in a tiny little tool, the
"Kill-A-Watt":
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/kill_a_watt_electric_usage_monitor_review
It reads watts, VA, amps, power factor, voltage, and the mysterious Kw/H.
Thanks,
Charles
Eric Fullar
Univ. of Oregon Telecom Services
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Sprickman [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 12:53 PM
To:
Subject: [datacenter] Understanding power billing
Hi all,
Hope this list is still active...
I'm working on a VERY small in-house "ghetto co-lo" setup. So far, so
good, but one thing I'm stuck on is figuring out our actual power costs so
that I can give management some numbers along the lines of "this server
consumes 120 Watts, which costs us $X/month".
Any pointers to how kilowatt/hour billing is calculated? I was looking at
our power bill and it's pretty complicated. We get billed a certain
amount at $X/kw/h, and then after a certain amount of usage $Y/kw/h. I
don't mind just averaging that, as all I really need is an approximate
cost.
Any input, STFW, etc. appreciated. :)
Thanks,
Charles
___
Charles Sprickman
NetEng/SysAdmin
Bway.net - New York's Best Internet - www.bway.net
[email protected] - 212.655.9344
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