In a constant pursuit to maximize my PPD/$, I looked into the Time-of-Use electricity rates from my electric company in Madison, WI.

Normal rates
$0.13873/kwh in summer
$0.12779/kwh in winter
 
Time-of-Use rates
Peak = $0.24476/kwh summer (June 1st-Sept 30th) and $0.21873/kwh during winter months
Non-peak = $0.0671/kwh during summer and winter months

Time-of-Use rates consists of Peak hours from 10am-9pm Monday-Friday and Non-peak hours during all other hours during the week, including weekends. I also have to sign a 12-month contract that locks me into these rates b/c a different power meter must be installed.

Time-of-Use makes the most sense for:
- renters with nobody in the apartment during the day hours and willing to turn off/lower AC and heat usage
- air conditioner and furnace that runs on electricity
- willing to use high-energy appliances during non-peak hours and weekends (washing machines, dryers, dishwashers)
- Folders who have GPUs that consume a lot of power and are willing to fold GPUs during the non-peak hours only

I basically pay 1/2 the price during non-peak hours and 2x the price during peak hours. The obvious goal is to maximize PC power use during non-peak hours and minimize during peak hours. I plan to fold bigadv on my i7 920 4.0ghz CPU 8 cores curing the peak hours and fold with the (2) 480's 1650mhz and 7 cores on the CPU during the non-peak hours. 

CPU 8 cores bigadv 2685 wu = 30k PPD using 375W of power (measured with Kill-a-Watt energy meter)
CPU 7 cores bigadv 2685 wu, (2) 480's = 55k PPD using 820W of power

During a full 7-day week, I will be folding for 55 peak hours and 113 non-peak hours. That's correct - there are 2x as many non-peak hours in a full week. I will only be folding the CPU 8 cores during the peak hours. Of the 113 non-peak hours, 12.5 hours will be on CPU 8 cores only, and 100.5 hours on CPU 7 cores and (2) 480's. This setup equates to:

Time-of-Use rates = $10.88/week
84,375 points/week CPU 8 cores (67.5 hrs/wk x 1,250 points/hr = 84,375 points/wk) 
230,246 points/week CPU 7 cores, (2) 480's (100.5 hrs/wk x 2,291 points/hr = 230,246 points/wk)
----------
314,620 total points/week @ $10.88 = 289 points/$0.01


Normal rates = $14.94/week
211 points/$0.01


In summary, the Time-of-Use rates work best for me and will save me close to $16 per month. Since my wife and I are at work during the majority of peak hours and we live in a 1 bedroom apartment, we will turn off our AC and heat during the day. We will only use our high-energy appliances during the non-peak hours. My PC folding setup with the (2) 480's makes me an ideal user for the Time-of-Use rates b/c I don't mind turning the GPUs on and off to use only during the non-peak hours. 

I'm going to ask that you not bump this thread. What I'll do is allow this thread to be stickied for a while just so beginning folders can see what kind of bills they can be expecting.

Hmm, so at your rates it cost me just under $3.00 / per day, or $90.00 a month

tier 1# 0.07981per kwh for first 40kwh per month
tier 2# 0.08127per kwh for next 40kwh per month
tier 3# 0.11127per kwh for next 40kwh per month
tier 4# 0.13125per kwh for next 40kwh per month
tier 5# 0.14110per kwh for next 40kwh per month
tier 6# 0.15110per kwh for next 50kwh per month
and so on up to tier 15# at 0.31115
i'm at tier 10 at .21110 per kwh because of the pool
they do not have off peek timing on my block
(yes in socal they have it but in some places the wont)
if they did i do it and have all my pool gear run at off peek rates
my bill is 290-390$ a month 410~500 in summer with the A/C on
this is why i have been holding off on building a farm

yumm holy crrap i pay .06618 kwh no offpeak and so forth and pay ruffly 120$ a month for a 3 bed 2 bath 2 hot water heats set to ruffly 125 degrees and dish washer and old washer and dryer. i throw a fit about the bill i had here cuz its normly around 60. but dang id hate to have your guys bills
and my computer is on about 20  hours a day

Hmm...I wonder... if this might up my bill...haha
 
Folding 2X 580's at 850mhz, 1 470 at 750mzh, and all 12 cores on a 980x at 4.2 folding.
 

 
With just the GPU's
 

 
 
 
 
 

they used to offer this in my area, but have now done away with the program. although I am still granfathered in as long as there isnt an interuption in my service.  Although the penalty here for using during peak times is quite high. When I was running a 200 series GPU farm my bill was insanely high.
 
I am working on getting a local company to host my next project on site so I can maybe escape another year of uber high electric costs.

Xavier FoldingForTheFuture is a federally recognized non profit org. I had to do that to gain access to certain resources that you gain as non profit. Also its possible to write off certain aspects of costs on your income taxes in the US, but can be quite tricky and require the advice of a Tax attorney .
I am uncertain what way I will be going with this next project.

Could you PM me a link of the spreadsheet?  I'd love to see what my costs will be like.  I just got a second 570 and I've had to keep them clocked at 825 to keep power consumption low enough to use my 750PSU.  My 1200W comes today though so its full steam ahead!

The spreadsheet from eduncan911 is here
 
I just used it, and it was really helpful to estimate my power costs for folding 24/7 and see the effects of how much I fold on the monthly bill.  60 bucks a month is worth it for the science   Thanks!

not really bad at all

Halfdead14

HeavyHemi

Hmm...I wonder... if this might up my bill...haha

Folding 2X 580's at 850mhz, 1 470 at 750mzh, and all 12 cores on a 980x at 4.2 folding.



With just the GPU's

Depends on your electric rates but, folding with 2 GTX 580's @ 900MHz and an I7 920@4.2GHz all overclocked costs me 150$ a month extra (12 hours of folding per day) on my electric bill. I had to give up folding for a while because of the ridiculous rates we're charged here in California(PG&E).

 
geez man, $150 extra for a single folding desktop? California is crazy!
here in NJ I usually pay max $50 extra (to PSEG) if I keep folding on everything at all times (power draw of around 900watts non-stop)... I mean I used to with 260 cards ... not sure about now hehe, might get surprised soon I think.

I'm actually never going to calculate how much my 24/7 Folding costs me as I'm afraid I'll uninstall when I see the results.  Had a break since Sept. when issues between computer and attitude were a problem but since 3/1/12 I have been 24/7 folding on 470 Slid, 2600K on C1 and 460 with Q6600 on C2... I don't want to know I;m just going to pretend that its summer and I am already using the ACs, doing lots of laundry, and running hot water through the deep freezer.  That should be about enough excuses. 

Great thread, used it to calculate how much it would cost to add a ps3 slim to my setup, turns out its crazy cheap lol.
 
Thanks again for the work put into this, i hate doing make work projects :P

i quit folding a long time ago due to expense and electricity just kept on going up, i may look into it again now that i have a couple of rigs (the old tried and true 780i is not being used atm and my x58 righ that i just finished with the tri-sli and 9600gt for physics, gotta check with the electric company though.