Can I calculate cost of electricity?

ceewash

I currently share business premises with someone else and we have to calculate our separate elctricity consumption in order to split the bill fairly. Is there a web site that can do this for us? We only use lights and computers and small electrical appliances.

Vestra

Multiply the unit cost by the usage in kwh, remembering to take into account any standing charge or tiered pricing, have a look at the back of your bill.

Calculating gas is slightly more complicated.

Theo_Cupier

ceewash wrote: »

I currently share business premises with someone else and we have to calculate our separate elctricity consumption in order to split the bill fairly. Is there a web site that can do this for us? We only use lights and computers and small electrical appliances.

I'm assuming that you are both billed off the same meter and just want to know how to apportion the cost?

If so you're going to have to get very boring and:
1. identify the power rating of each electrical item (every PC, printer, monitor, bulb) in Watts or KiloWatts
2. approximate how long each is active each day, in Hours.
3. Multiply the power x hours for each appliance to get the energy consumption in KiloWatt Hours.
(so, for example a PC base unit rated 300W, active for 8 hours a day = 2.4KWH)
4. Add all those KiloWatt Hours together to get a grand total of KWH

To be honest, I think you only need to do this for one "typical" day. Then get your bill-sharer to do the same and compare figures. You then split the bill by the ratio of your consumption to his.

So, if you use 50KWH in an average day and he uses 75KWH a day, divide the bill by 125. You then pay 50/125ths of it and he pays 75/125ths of it.

This only gets more complex if he works a different number of days a week to you.

ceewash

how to I know the power rating of a pc or printer?

Theo_Cupier

If it's not printed on the item itself (there should be a sticker with power info near where you plug in the power lead) then you need to make some assumptions. So long as you and the other party are consistent in this, all should be well.

My guidelines:
Desktop PC / laptop: 300W
Server PC: 1KW (1000W)
Big office Laserjet printer: 500W when printing; 25W in standby