[K12OSN] Re: alternate power supplies

[Ben Mabbott]

Huck wrote:

> YEStation Mini(http://www.affirmative.net/extrathin.html#mini) cost 
> $249 msrp...
> at $0.07 per kWh(kilowatt hour) .. 8hrs a day(50 weeks a year) the 
> cost of a 100-watts for that time period for 10 machines = $140
> divide that by 10 for the Mini's...$14 a year...a savings of ??? 
> $126... the mini pays for itself in energy savings in 2yrs.

Actually, it's a lot more than 2 years. You're using 10 mini's to figure 
the savings in electricity, but then only applying that to the cost of 
one mini when figuring the time it will take for them to pay off.

10 Mini's x $249 per Mini = $2490 / $126 savings per year = 19.76 years. 
Looks like his engineer was pretty close after all :)

So if the goal is saving electricity, these look great. Even if they 
don't live up to their full potential of using %10 of what a regular 
client uses, it will still be significantly less. However, if the goal 
is saving money, they don't appear to be worth it. It's very unlikely 
that the same clients would be used for 20 years. Computers (especially 
in a school environment) generally don't have that kind of lifespan :)

-Ben

-- 
=========================================
Ben Mabbott, bmabbott at riverdale.k12.or.us
Riverdale Grade School
http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us
11733 SW Breyman Ave. Portland, OR 97219
Phone:(503)636-4511 Fax:(503)635-7534