According to a document published by the government where Rob lives [1], electricity rates are around 0.08 USD/kWh. We can assume Rob uses a computer at home a

According to a document published by the government where Rob lives [1], electricity rates are around 0.08 USD/kWh. We can assume Rob uses a computer at home anyway, and would have his DSL modem on anyway, so the extra electricity should be computed based on a single desktop being on for the extra hours per day that it might otherwise be put to sleep. Typical power consumption for a desktop box is around 90W if it is somewhat active vs. sleeping. There are about 730 hours in a month, but his computer would be on say 30% of the time anyway, so that's 511 extra hours per month. That comes to 46 kWh per month of extra electricity, which in his area costs about 3.68 USD per month. So the price is slightly less, but the value for money isn't good with the home solution. Then again, unemployed people are sometimes known to make suboptimal economic decisions in terms of expected value, because they're optimizing for other things (e.g. being able to switch off a cost mid-month). [1] http://www.oca.state.pa.us/Industry/Electric/elecomp/Archive/2014/ElecGuide_January2014.pdf http://www.oca.state.pa.us/Industry/Electric/elecomp/Archive...