Electricity

[syzygy]

Here in the Netherlands it is 0.23 euro cents per kWH.

23 euro cents, I'm afraid

€ 0,1462 of this is for taxes.

[mvk]

Here in the Netherlands it is 0.23 euro cents per kWH.

Most of which is tax...

Electricity for car parks, elevators, building management systems etc is only 7-8ct. I'm thinking of moving some PC's...

The only nice thing here is that glitches and outages are extremely rare. PC uptime of over 1 year, without UPS or surge protectors, is quite normal.

[syzygy]

The only nice thing here is that glitches and outages are extremely rare. PC uptime of over 1 year, without UPS or surge protectors, is quite normal.

This is very true.

[Adam Hair]

The only nice thing here is that glitches and outages are extremely rare. PC uptime of over 1 year, without UPS or surge protectors, is quite normal.

This is very true.

It is quite obvious that your consumer cost for electricity could be as low as it is in the US if you spent waaaay less on your electric power infrastructure. Dependable power is overrated

[Evert]

It is quite obvious that your consumer cost for electricity could be as low as it is in the US if you spent waaaay less on your electric power infrastructure. Dependable power is overrated

You get what you pay for. Personally I thought the frequency of power cuts we had while we lived in North America was utterly unacceptable.

Beside which, it's first of all not bad to encourage people to cut back on energy consumption, and second most people's energy bill is dominated by gas (unless you heat your house electronically, which is pretty stupid).

[syzygy]

The only nice thing here is that glitches and outages are extremely rare. PC uptime of over 1 year, without UPS or surge protectors, is quite normal.

This is very true.

It is quite obvious that your consumer cost for electricity could be as low as it is in the US if you spent waaaay less on your electric power infrastructure. Dependable power is overrated

If we just don't tax, most of the difference would be gone already.

(unless you heat your house electronically, which is pretty stupid).

Unless the electric heater is calculating chess positions at the same time

[Evert]

Unless the electric heater is calculating chess positions at the same time

True.
Or providing light. I think it's still true that it's cheaper to use gas and an energy-efficient bulb in that case, but the difference is smaller than you'd think if you just look at the electricity.

[Adam Hair]

It is quite obvious that your consumer cost for electricity could be as low as it is in the US if you spent waaaay less on your electric power infrastructure. Dependable power is overrated

You get what you pay for. Personally I thought the frequency of power cuts we had while we lived in North America was utterly unacceptable.

I was attempting to be humorous. My post was a jab at the condition of the American power grid and the lack of money spent on modernizing it and making it more robust.

Beside which, it's first of all not bad to encourage people to cut back on energy consumption, and second most people's energy bill is dominated by gas (unless you heat your house electronically, which is pretty stupid).

Many homes in the American South use heat pumps for heating, with gas or electric heat strips as emergency heat sources. In the case of my bedroom/office, I use an 8 core server

[Evert]

I was attempting to be humorous. My post was a jab at the condition of the American power grid and the lack of money spent on modernizing it and making it more robust.

Fair enough.

I had the impression a large part of the problem is that many power cables seemed to run above ground, from house-to-house, rather than being underground. Is that fair, or is there a more general problem?

Many homes in the American South use heat pumps for heating, with gas or electric heat strips as emergency heat sources. In the case of my bedroom/office, I use an 8 core server

Using passive heat exchange to heat (or cool) a house is great, and could be utilised more.

[Adam Hair]

I was attempting to be humorous. My post was a jab at the condition of the American power grid and the lack of money spent on modernizing it and making it more robust.

Fair enough.

I had the impression a large part of the problem is that many power cables seemed to run above ground, from house-to-house, rather than being underground. Is that fair, or is there a more general problem?

That is certainly part of the problem. Though for many years the power supply to newly constructed homes and businesses have generally been run underground, the vast majority of the grid runs above ground.

Another problem is that the grid is made of many critical nodes. The failure of such a node can put a lot of people in the dark.

To be honest, I did some reading this morning on the subject for the first time in several years. It appears that some improvements (involving oversight and maintainance) have been made in the past few years. So perhaps the situation is not as bad as I thought.

Many homes in the American South use heat pumps for heating, with gas or electric heat strips as emergency heat sources. In the case of my bedroom/office, I use an 8 core server

Using passive heat exchange to heat (or cool) a house is great, and could be utilised more.