Browse Forums General Discussion Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 4Jul 18, 2011 7:40 pm My building thread : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36059 Paid initial deposit 24/7/10 Tender appointment 20/8/2010 Flooring and tile appointment 25/9/10 Colour and Electrical appointment 13/9/10 December site start delayed Site start (YAY!) 17/1/11 Slab pour 1/2/2011 Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 5Jul 18, 2011 7:48 pm 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 10Jul 19, 2011 9:40 am Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 11Jul 19, 2011 10:38 am mimi23 building1 How often do you get an electricity bill? It's been a while and i'm not looking forward to it Electricity is billed quarterly. Yes it is mimi-but sometimes the company mucks up and your bill doesn't come for 6 months. We are currently waiting on a bill for 6 months because the last quarter bill couldn't be provided because when they installed our smart metre whoever was responsible for inputting the serial numbers transposed digits-which meant when the read was attempted the metre on site didn't match the serial number the company had....................which meant they then had to send out a technician...............which meant that they couldn't provide us with a bill last quarter.. Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 12Jul 19, 2011 10:58 am btherl Some advice regarding your laptops - don't get too obsessed with switching them off to save power, especially during winter. If you switch them off and they cool down, then you switch them on in the cold, you can damage the hard drives. As they start they will rapidly heat up, and hard drives can't handle rapid temperature change. This is just too funny....I wonder how many actually believed you. Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 14Jul 19, 2011 3:18 pm donnam We have 6 in our lounge, 6 in the kitchen and 2 in the dining, 4 in the family room and 2 in the study. I wouldn't say that is overkill. It wouldnt specifically just be the downlights. As I said...every little thing adds up and makes for a surprise in the power bill. If you cannot account for the increase in power usage easily, then it may be worth renting/borrowing a meter from somewhere to determine where the power is being used. Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 15Jul 19, 2011 4:30 pm 3timesbuilda btherl Some advice regarding your laptops - don't get too obsessed with switching them off to save power, especially during winter. If you switch them off and they cool down, then you switch them on in the cold, you can damage the hard drives. As they start they will rapidly heat up, and hard drives can't handle rapid temperature change. This is just too funny....I wonder how many actually believed you. It's not a joke.. a typical hard drive is designed to tolerate a temperature increase of 20 degrees over an hour. You'll easily exceed that if you start it too cold, and doing it regularly is a sure way to lower the life of your hard drive. Think about how much the internals of the hard drive expand and contract as the temperature changes. The drive will do its best to compensate but it can only handle slow temperature change. Letting it get too hot is bad too, but I've seen more problems due to temperature change than due to high operating temperature in Melbourne's climate. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 16Jul 19, 2011 7:49 pm btherl 3timesbuilda btherl Some advice regarding your laptops - don't get too obsessed with switching them off to save power, especially during winter. If you switch them off and they cool down, then you switch them on in the cold, you can damage the hard drives. As they start they will rapidly heat up, and hard drives can't handle rapid temperature change. This is just too funny....I wonder how many actually believed you. It's not a joke.. a typical hard drive is designed to tolerate a temperature increase of 20 degrees over an hour. You'll easily exceed that if you start it too cold, and doing it regularly is a sure way to lower the life of your hard drive. Think about how much the internals of the hard drive expand and contract as the temperature changes. The drive will do its best to compensate but it can only handle slow temperature change. Letting it get too hot is bad too, but I've seen more problems due to temperature change than due to high operating temperature in Melbourne's climate. Your statement has some basis in in fact but you're really stretching things a little I would think - the recommended minimum operating temperature for most mechanical HDD's is usually 5 degrees celcius, so unless you're consistently starting up your laptop first thing in the morning outside in winter then in practice a laptop HDD isn't in any danger of wearing down sooner due to heating up from a cold state. There's also the fact that most people would probably seek to increase the ambient air temperature in the house before firing up said laptop if it was hovering at or below 5 degrees celcius, so even in an period of extreme cold the laptop isn't likely to be operated in a potentially harmful environment temperature-wise. There are other reasons which potentially might provide motivation for putting a computer to sleep overnight rather than shutting it down entirely, but damage to the hard disk due to excessive cold isn't usually one of them. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 17Jul 19, 2011 9:04 pm My bill is around $2.20 a day or $200 per quater. That's in a house with one person but I still have a fridge, computer, TV, lighting etc same as everyone else. I just turn stuff off when I don't use it. I only use one light in the main living/kitchen area as the 7 downlights are overkill. Gas is much worse - just got a bill for $4.88 per day or $304 for 2 months. As for the hard drive thing - never bothered to leave a PC on when I'm not using it and after using them daily I've never had to replace a faulty hard drive in 20 years. Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 18Jul 20, 2011 9:22 am btherl It's not a joke.. a typical hard drive is designed to tolerate a temperature increase of 20 degrees over an hour. You'll easily exceed that if you start it too cold, and doing it regularly is a sure way to lower the life of your hard drive. Think about how much the internals of the hard drive expand and contract as the temperature changes. The drive will do its best to compensate but it can only handle slow temperature change. Letting it get too hot is bad too, but I've seen more problems due to temperature change than due to high operating temperature in Melbourne's climate. What cmhamilton said and just to add after over 26 years in the field including fixing the darn things to component level (no board swapping), working with 19 inch hard drives where you have to replace the heads!! and working in organisations with 3 to >100 000 machines I simply cannot agree with your advice. The vast majority of HDD failures are in units that were running at the time and had been doing so for extended periods. Cheap servers are notorious for their high HDD failure rates because of the cheaper drives that are used - because they are always running, servers need very high quality drives and RAID together with regular backup is used as the fail safe. Ask any good techie about how many HDDs they go thru with their always on equipment. Frankly don't RELY on google to find all the answers - there is a LOT of wrong or misleading info out there. Theory and practice are not the same thing. Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 19Jul 20, 2011 9:38 am 3timesbuilda, do you usually work with home machines that are switched on and off daily, and in an area that experiences large temperature changes? Because that's a totally different situation to 24/7 RAID servers in a climate controlled environment. If the climate is controlled and the drives are very rarely started up, then of course the temperature when the drive is switched on is not going to be a likely cause of failure. Edit: This is turning into too much of an argument for my liking, I would like to keep it friendly So I've deleted the original paragaph that was here, it didn't have much point. cmhamilton, you don't need to start a drive at 5 degrees to have a temperature increase of 20 degrees over an hour. Starting it at 15 degrees or so will do it, in my experience. That's cold enough to get funny noises and complaints from the drive as it warms up. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: how big is your elec bill? (those with gas heating) Melb 20Jul 20, 2011 1:03 pm Sounds on the money, getting more and more expensive though https://form.jotform.com/240284569218058 Please spare a moment to fill out this survey form for a project. You stand a chance to win a digital gift voucher. Legitimate… 0 3428 I want to build a decking to the drawn shape outlined in black. The problem is how close can I build to the gas hot water unit? Will I be able to build around it and be… 0 20734 |