The Cost of Electric Power  The Cost of Electric Power

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This view this page, you should have a recent Java installed, preferably 32-bit JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 1.7.0_04.
This calculator will tell you how much it costs to do various tasks with electricity depending on where you live. It will tell you in your own local currency, no matter where you live on the planet. All you have to do is select your location (or a location with similar power costs to where you live) and select the activity. This information will help you figure out where you can most easily save money, and save the planet in the bargain. Sorry, you need Java 1.5 or later to run this Applet.

How are the Calculations Done?

PowCost has an internal list of locations and the cost per Kwh. After you select a location and a activity, it multiplies together the cost of electricity per Kwh at that location, the time in hours of the activity, and an adjustment based on today currency exchange rates to convert into your local currency.

The raw information comes from many sources all over the Internet. If you have better costs, please send them to me, any currency is ok, cost per Kwh. Please feel free costs any locations I have not mentioned, or to make requests for still more activities.

Carbon Footprint

Though the use of electricity does not generate any greenhouse gases, the process of generating it does, especially burning natural gas, oil or worst of all, coal. Different countries make their power in a different mix of ways.

CO₂ emitted in electricity generation
Country grams of CO₂
emitted per kilowatt hour
of electricity generated.
Lower is better.		 Notes
Iceland 60 geothermal
Canada 220 fair amount of hydro
U.K. 600 burn fossil fuels
USA 660 burn fossil fuels
China 900 burn coal
Australia 1060 burn black coal

source: How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything

The Electric Car

As you can see, the electric car takes 25 times as much energy as an electric kettle. If the electric car were to replace the gasoline car, the electric grid could not sustain the immense extra load to recharge them. A much bigger change is required, namely using much smaller, lighter vehicles, perhaps more along the lines of the Segway, the electric bicycle or a small single-passenger pod, computer-driven at densities impossible for human drivers.

Trouble Shooting

If, PowCost, the above Power Cost Calculator signed Java Applet does not work…

  1. Often problems can be fixed simply by clicking the reload button on your browser.
  2. Make sure you have both JavaScript and Java enabled in your browser.
  3. This signed Java Applet needs 32-bit (not 64-bit) Java 1.5 or later. For best results use the latest 1.7.0_04. If you have both 32 and 64-bit JVMs installed, in the Java Control Panel, configure your 32-bit java.exe as the user JVM and your 64-bit java.exe as the system JVM. You also need a recent browser.
  4. It works under any operating system that supports Java e.g. W2K/XP/W2003/Vista/W7-32/W7-64/Linux/Ubuntu/Solaris/OSX
  5. You should see the Applet above looking much like this screenshot. If you don’t, the following hints should help you get it working:
  6. For this Applet to work, you must click grant/accept to give it permission to allow you to configure the look & feel.. If you refuse to grant permission, the program may crash with an inscrutable stack dump on the console complaining about AccessController.checkPermission.
  7. Optionally, you may permanently install the Canadian Mind Products code-signing certificate so you don’t have to grant each time.
  8. If the above Applet appears to freeze-up, click Alt-Esc repeatedly to check for any buried permission dialog box.
  9. If you have certificate troubles, check the installed certificates and remove or update any obsolete or suspected defective certificates. The only certificate used by this program is mindprodcert2012dsa.cer.
  10. Especially if this Applet has worked before, try clearing the browser cache and rebooting.
  11. To ensure your Java is up to date, check with Wassup. First, download it and run it as an application independent of your browser, then run it online as an Applet to add the complication of your browser.
  12. If the above Applet does not work, check the Java console for error messages.
  13. If the above Applet does not work, you might have better luck with the downloadable version available below.
  14. If you are using Mac OS X and would like an improved Look and Feel, download the QuaQua look & feel from randelshofer.ch/quaqua. UnZip the contained quaqua.jar and install it in ~/Library/Java/Extensions or one of the other ext dirs.
  15. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9, try another browser. Seriously. Microsoft has taken great pains, over and over, to screw up Java and every other multi-platform standardisation.
  16. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9, you must click to allow blocked content permission for Active X to run. This also gives permission to Java to run. Click the Information bar, and then click Allow blocked content. Unfortunately, this also allows dangerous ActiveX code to run. However, you must do this in order to get access to perfectly-safe Java Applets running in a sandbox. This is part of Microsoft’s war on Java. Don’t put up with it! Use a different browser.
  17. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, makes sure the Java Plug-In SSV helper add-in is installed and enabled. If it is not, try reinstalling the Java JRE.
  18. If you have Windows 7 64-bit and Internet Explorer 64-bit, in theory you can use 64-bit Java, but I never been able to get it to work.
  19. Try upgrading to a more recent version of your browser, or try a different browser e.g. Firefox, SeaMonkey, Safari or Avant.
  20. If you still can’t get the program working click HELP for more detail.
  21. If you can’t get the above Applet working after trying the advice above and from the HELP button below, have bugs to report or ideas to improve the program or its documentation, please send me an email atemail Roedy Green.
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Acquiring the Program

PackageVersionReleasedLicenceLanguageNotes 
powcost
PowCost		 1.3 2011-05-19 free Java
more info ❘ precis ❘ screenshot ❘ browse source repository
for the current version of PowCost.
Calculates how much electricity costs depending on where you are and what you do to consume it.
download 3.2MB zip for PowCost Java source, compiled class files, jar and documentation to run on your own machine either as an application or an Applet.

Runs on any OS that supports Java e.g. W2K/XP/W2003/Vista/W7-32/W7-64/Linux/Ubuntu/Solaris/OSX.

First install the most recent Java.

To install, extract the zip download with WinZip, (or similar unzip utility) into any directory you please, often J:\ — ticking off the use folder names option.

To check out the corresponding source from the Subversion repository, use the TortoiseSVN repo-browser to
access powcost source in repository with [Tortoise] Subversion client on wush.net/svn/mindprod/com/mindprod/powcost/.

After you have installed the jar, you can run it as an application. Type:

java -jar J:\com\mindprod\powcost\powcost.jar

adjusting as necessary to account for where the jar file is.

download ASP PAD XML program description for the current version of PowCost.

PowCost is free.
$489.00 US donated so far. If the CMP utilities solved your problem, please donate a buck or two, or donate to one of the charities featured in the footer public service ads throughout the website and get a tax receipt.
Full source included. You may even include the source code, modified or unmodified in free/commercial open source/proprietary programs that you write and distribute. Non-military use only.
  
 
Energy audit calculator
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