I've just bought a new computer with 700 kw power supply.
At $0.2 per kwh, that means that I spend $100 per month just for the food of the computer!
I have to make 3-4 sales just to feed the beast!

Did I miss anything?

Sure: just divide by 1000 and you'll be OK.
Zygis

Sure, I have removed the wrong K from above, but still the bottom line is the same! Let me rephrase my question:

I've just bought a new computer with 700 w (0.7 kw) power supply.
At $0.2 per kwh, that means that I spend $100 per month just for the food of the computer!
0.7 * 24 * 30 * 0.2 = $100.80
I have to make 3-4 sales just to feed the beast!

Hi wideweb your calculation is flawed for several reasons.

Your power supply has to have enough power to drive all the components in your computer at the same time and usually a bit left over to allow for any peripherals or devices like external hard drives that draw power from a USB port.

700W is the maximum power output - it doesn't mean it is using it all the time. It may only use a fraction of this if you have a "power saving" mode.

Obviously you may have a team of people working 24/7 editing complex files that are being copied in from external hard drives and DVD copies being made non stop - in which case you may use $100 a month.

In reality you are probably using between a quarter and a third of the figure you calculated.

TE

Maybe you can save some money by unplugging the computer and rubbing two sticks together, using a slide rule or drawing animations of all you clips ;)

I never turn my computer off. It runs 24/7 with just an occasional reboot to clean things up.

Interesting thought either way. It doesn't hurt to save up a few bucks :P

Thank you TE. My computer uploads at nights, but true, I don't burn DVDs all the time. So in either case, I think 2 sales are wasted every month just for electricity. Add to that the cost of the computer, cameras, travel - life is expensive.

I have an APC 1500W backup and along with it came some cool free software that lets me monitor usage etc... I have two computers (I7, 32 gb ram with GTX 670) and then just a workstation I5 - between the two and a color laserjet, external raid, Cable modem-router, and a switch it tells me I am using only 117.95 KWh for last month (Jan 31 days) or an approximate cost of $13.95 for power for all my stuff. If you are spending $100 bucks plus, then either move to a better area or get software to measure the real usage. And by the way, my I7 has a 750 w power supply. If I had a 750 kw power supply I could power my whole house. :)

I will try to find this amazing software.

If you have an apc it is called "Powerchute" - Download powerchute personal edition

Wideweb, turn off your monitor while you upload. Surely it consumes more energy than your CPU.

Thanks, the monitor goes to sleep anyway after 10 minutes of inactivity.