Cost of running your aquarium on "time of use" rates

[dan2x38]

GreatWhite I love spread sheets I will massage the crap out of one... LOL

OP off topic but hey you started it... Before I left my 1st wife I was building a 69 pro/street Camaro SS.    When I left lost the garage so in turn the Camero...   x 1,000,000  Well any ways I created a spread sheet for that (in 1996) and recorded all purchases plus my time. That would have blown your mind - talk about expenses. Then talk about a crap kicking I took on selling off the car/parts/tools, etc... I still have nightmares about the loss and cry myself to sleep over the loss.  


EDITTED - I was searching for a way to calculate our A/C usage and found this http://www.consumerspower.org/home_energy/billestimator.php Now it is American so it should be quite different but... I pumped in my numbers and the total was right on minus my aquarium costs. It was under by $2 for the month. It is worth a little look very interesting.

[Hookup]

I'm working on a version that allows you to enter the start and stop time of each device and it's power consumption... it's way more user-friendly to say... my 800watt devices comes on at 2am and off at 12:30pm and have it auto-calcualte the $4/day..

needless to say.. the dynamic calculation around start/stop times and each of the 4 frigg'n windows of different charge/rates is the part i'm trouble shooting... i've got it mostly working... but if you turn on something at 8:30am and it goes off at 7:30am the next day... the 7am - 11am window needs to show 3hours of time at that rate... that's the part that's not working... YET...

Massive nested IF statements ...  PAIN in the ARSE to follow all the brackets and commas... but it's getting there...

When its done you'll just list each device, it's on/off time and the power...   I've used all of Greatwhites formulas from Dans last version... but it'll need to be checked and verified several times...

[bt]

I'm working on a version that allows you to enter the start and stop time of each device and it's power consumption...

Here you go - though you put in start time and run time instead of start and end.  It also does accurate weekend-holiday-weekday and winter-summer calculations across an entire year (though not on a monthly basis, though that may be my next trick).

For things that only run periodically while "on" (ie: heater) you can enter a % of the "on" time that the device is actually active.

Edit: You can also change the year as well as the peak, mid peak and off peak rates and everything will update automatically.  I may try to come up with something that will let you enter a custom date range as well, though that could become difficult to handle the holidays as I'd have to account for floating holidays (IE: Victoria day, where the actual date changes) and then the shifting on fixed holidays (IE: like Christmas this year, where the 27th counts as a stat day).

[Greatwhite]

Hey! I see you were able to upload an xslx file!  I guess my "bug report" did the trick.

I was thinking about adding in the weekend thing, but the holidays - that's a little tricky since they vary month to month.  Really,  the spreadsheet should be viewed as an approximation of your power usage & cost.  I don't want people to expect it to be bang on and sue Ontario Hydro because their bill says something different.

[bt]

I was thinking about adding in the weekend thing, but the holidays - that's a little tricky since they vary month to month.

That's why I based it mostly off annual cost.  Accounting for the holidays then is easy - 5 in the summer, 5 in the winter.  Excel has a handy function that will tell you the number of work days between 2 dates as well (you have to manually tell it how many holiday days though), which makes the count of weekdays vs weekends and holidays easy.

Really,  the spreadsheet should be viewed as an approximation of your power usage & cost.  I don't want people to expect it to be bang on and sue Ontario Hydro because their bill says something different.

Absolutely agreed - there are other things that are very difficult to account for such as the cooling fans on lights, the standby power draw of the heater (or even the timer for the lights), etc.

[bt]

New version, allows you to enter a start and end date.  It will take any range up to 2 calendar years.  So Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2012 will work, but Jan 2, 2011 to Jan 1, 2013 will not.

Items can be added by copying the block for one of the existing items and pasting it further down.

I think I got all of the wonkiness out of it, but if anyone sees anything odd let me know.

For those that are interested, the weekend/holiday and seasonal stuff is all handled on the 2nd sheet.

[dan2x38]

OK now I think I'll go write a VB app... how dare you guys out do me!!!    I go out shopping with the wife and I am obsolete in an afternoon...    LOL  Man this little tool sure has taken on a life cycle - same as this thread. Can't wait to see HookUp's ver.

Next?  LOL  Where is your efforts JetJumper?    You've surprisingly have stayed out of this one...?

[JetJumper]

Next?  LOL  Where is your efforts JetJumper?    You've surprisingly have stayed out of this one...?

I rather not know

[dan2x38]

I rather not know

OR do you mean you'd rather not say?   

[JetJumper]

I don't think I am near hookup's level

[dan2x38]

I don't think I am near hookup's level

Level of what - Power Consumption?  LOL

[Greatwhite]

Alrighty - my job is in software management and design/architecture.  I will build a project plan for this tool and I'll schedule development time for you guys.     I'm tired of developing (15 years of it is more than enough), so it's all you guys!

[dan2x38]

Alrighty - my job is in software management and design/architecture.  I will build a project plan for this tool and I'll schedule development time for you guys.     I'm tired of developing (15 years of it is more than enough), so it's all you guys!

I was a network senior admin. I programmed but preferred not to... LOL  instead setup test labs and development department... of course that meant spoon feeding software developers... having to babysit them... then fix what they destroyed...   and don't get me going on project managers!!!    hated project meetings more than the Boston Bruins I think - nah not possible but you get the picture... 

[Greatwhite]

I was a network senior admin. I programmed but preferred not to... LOL  instead setup test labs and development department... of course that meant spoon feeding software developers... having to babysit them... then fix what they destroyed...   and don't get me going on project managers!!!    hated project meetings more than the Boston Bruins I think - nah not possible but you get the picture... 

Hmm... I'll schedule a meeting so we can plan meetings to meet about more meetings in the future... That's what I HATE about project managers.  I never mastered the PM's ability to pull random dates out of my butt and make impossible promises to upper management.

I was a developer for about 5 years, then a dev manager for 3, and since then, I do everything (literally) but prefer designing and architecture over managing timelines.  UNfortunately, they are a necessary evil.

[Nerine]

is all your equipment plugged into a power bar?

take said bar, plug into tool that measures everything leave for 24 hours and you'll get an accurate reading of what you're using. we went and purchased one as getting it from the library you're only allowed it 2 weeks and we measured EVERYTHING....it's VERY handy and found our hydro leaks...when we moved into our house our bill was 400 a MONTH...now it's 200 a month. and it works well because you can take your aquarium, plug it into this tool and presto

the time of use rates are just a way to get more $$....for us, it isn't a HUGE difference to do laundry in the afternoon vs in off peak hours.

it's that delivery rate that kills!!

maybe ovas should invest in some of those time of use tools to borrow out to members

[bt]

I'd be willing to whip up a PHP version of the excel sheet if anyone would like.  My PHP is a bit rusty, but it's like falling off a bike really.