Most electricity utilities charge higher rates during “peak” hours, times and\/or days of the week during which the public typically uses a lot of energy. If you run energy intensive applications during peak or near peak hours then you may run up your energy bill unexpectedly high. What follows is a way to schedule these energy intensive tasks so they run during off-peak hours only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is my energy provider’s rate schedule for my plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Off-Peak<\/strong> 9PM – 10AM<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part-Peak <\/strong>10AM – 1PM and 7PM – 9PM Peak<\/strong> 1PM – 7PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n Off-Peak<\/strong> 8PM – 5PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part-Peak <\/strong>5PM – 8PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seasons<\/strong>: During summer, prices are lowest in the morning, late evenings, and weekends from May through October. During winter months from November through April, prices are lowest at all times outside of 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. on weekdays (excluding holidays).<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can lower your energy costs by staying within the lowest priced level or tier. I’ve written a crontab entry that runs my energy intensive cryptocurrency miners during off-peak hours only. This saves quite a bit in energy costs while simultaneously allowing me to mine cryptocurrency during much of the day\/week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your plan may vary from the above schedule. The first step in scheduling your energy intensive jobs is to determine your rate schedule. This is typically available via the website of your energy provider. Once you have determined your rate schedule you can then utilize the cron<\/strong> facility on a Unix or Linux based computer to control the time of execution of your application(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The software utility\u00a0cron<\/strong>\u00a0is a time-based\u00a0job scheduler<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Unix-like<\/a>\u00a0computer\u00a0operating systems<\/a>. People who set up and maintain software environments use cron to schedule jobs (commands or\u00a0shell scripts<\/a>) to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals. It typically automates system maintenance or administration\u2014though its general-purpose nature makes it useful for things like downloading files from the\u00a0Internet<\/a>\u00a0and downloading\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0at regular intervals. The origin of the name\u00a0cron<\/em>\u00a0is from the Greek word for time, \u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 (chronos<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWeekends<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Part-Peak<\/strong><\/td> 5PM – 8PM<\/td><\/tr> Off-Peak<\/strong><\/td> 8PM – 5PM<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n Holidays <\/strong>– Standard Tiered Rates (Tier 2)<\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Off-Peak<\/strong><\/td> All day<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n Winter weekdays (November – April)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Weekends<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Off-Peak<\/strong><\/td> All day<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n Holidays<\/strong> – Standard Tiered Rates (Tier 2)<\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Off-Peak<\/strong><\/td> All day<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n Saving Energy & Saving Money<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Cron Utility on Unix & Linux Systems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n