Well.... I could do that, but it would not be cost effective.

My house is split out on two meters: one for the computers (mine and SWMBO's) and one for all the rest of the house. The A/C is split evenly between the two meters, with one 110V leg of the 220 the A/C uses coming off of each meter.

Right now, after a full year of operation on the split metering, the house has used one kWh more than the computers. My most recent electric bill which covers a two month period, came to 200 pesos for each meter. (This was before the A/C was installed.) That works out to about eight dollars per month for my computers.

I should note that in addition to the computers, the second meter also has two telephone systems (one local, one VOIP), a cable modem, and a router. These draw 30 watts 24/7.

SWMBO's iMac uses far less power than my system; it is efficient, yes, but also far less powerful than mine. Let's say it uses 1/4 of the power of my system. That means my inefficient power-hungry system is costing me $6.00 per month to run. That's for computer, monitor, scanner, printer, everything. The computer itself is probably costing me about $5.00 per month.

So, if I could cut my power usage in half by spending $2,000 to build a really energy-efficient but powerful system, why the electric bill savings would pay for the new computer in just 33 66 years.

I'll get right on that.

tanstaafl.

Edited to correct math error.