Hi ther,
I have to set this straight...
The costs is not 0.08 euro for every kWatt (1000 watts) per hour.. as I started this post with that price.
.. today it is 0.20 cents (I have to include taxes).
I did some real testing with a Energy consumtpion meter and am trying to get a picture of real costs.
If I have my basic devices on like router, NAS, telephone, sound, laptop, and my main PC (with 4x580) is turned on without doing anything special teh power draw is 420 Watt/h.
Having my PC on like this on a working day for let 's say 8 hours, then the cost will be:
8hr x 0,42kW/h x 0,20euro= 0,67 cents a day. (0,084 cents an hour)
when rendering full power with 4x580 the powerdraw is 1296Watt/h.
That 's about 876W/h more because of rendering in Octane.
Rendering will cost: 1hr x 1.296kWatt/h x 0,20euro= 0,26euro every hour
Now when adding my slave machine with 3x 780 will give powerdraw 2133 Watt/h
Rendering will cost: 1hr x 2.133 kWatt/h x 0,20euro= 0,43euro every hour,
that's 3,40 euro on a 8hr working day
let's say I'll be working 48 weeks, 5 days a week: that's 240 days
0,67euro x 240 days = 160 euro per year for only having one PC turned on.
Let's say I'll be rendering about 20% of that time (in practise it will be less rendering full throttle, but I liker to make assumption):
0,67euro x (240 days*80%) + 3,40euro x (240 days*20%) = 128,64+163,20 = 291,84 euro
That is less then a euro a day... that's not too bad
let's say for fun I'll start a render farm and I will be rendering all day long 48 weeks, 7 days a week: that's 336 days;
3,40 eur x 336days = 1156 euro per year for rendering full throttle.
Probably I'll get back here with real measured power consumtion of a week or month work,
that's better then assumptions
cheers,