Upgrade Drive Capacity to reduce operating cost – calc look over please?

[landS]

Howdy folks,

 

My server has 7 OLD 4TB 7200 drives (2 parity/5 data) for 20TB of storage.

These do not spin down due to my using crashplan (on about 3 Tb worth of the data).

 

I estimate that these consume about 8 watts each.

 

I believe I can reduce the array to 2 disks by moving to 2 20TB disks (1 parity /1 data) which would save 40 watts….

I believe this works out to be 350 kWh over the course of a year. 

 

My utility company charges $0.173/kWh (and climbing)… so by moving from 7 4TB drives to 2 20TB drives I’d save a whopping $60/year.

 

Does this math look about right to you folks --- or am I missing something glaring here?

 

 

A CMR SATA Seagate IronWolf Pro or Exos X20 look to go for $350 new - and $700 is a heck of a lot more than the occasional replacement cost of $70. 

Beyond saving electric costs - the server is in my bedroom closet & reducing noise would be nice.

Also it would be nice to reset the long-int-the-tooth drives. 

 

Thanks!

[ChatNoir]

5 hours ago, landS said:

My utility company charges $0.173/kWh (and climbing)… so by moving from 7 4TB drives to 2 20TB drives I’d save a whopping $60/year.

 

Does this math look about right to you folks --- or am I missing something glaring here?

60$/year is nice but if it costs you 600/800$+, is it financially sound ?

[landS]

Thanks CharNoir. 

I mainly wanted a sanity check on the electrical cost savings --- another set of eyes to see if what I’ve stated appears correct.

 

Saving $60/year at a cost of $700 certainly doesn’t make economical sense.

Paying $700 now when I could replace an occasional drive for $70 also doesn’t make economical sense.  

 

However, a lot of my drives in my main machine are reaching the 10+ year powered-on mark and the backside of the bathtub appears to be coming into play. 

 

As such I need to weigh:

Cost Savings

Reset of the bathtub curve / peace of mind

Reduced Noise (this is in my master bedrooms closet)

Reduced Heat

[JonathanM]

4 hours ago, landS said:

Reduced Heat

If you run the air conditioning most of the year, you can almost double the savings of any power reduction, because you aren't paying to remove the heat. If you run the furnace in the house more often, then the savings due to power reduction are almost gone, because the electricity to run any computer is converted pretty much entirely to heat.

 

Hot climate = more savings by reducing power. Cold climate = don't bother.

 

[landS]

Good point JonathanM.  Our AC runs 9 months a year... with a setting of 78*F.

 

I believe it highly likely I'll need to replace 2 of the drives in the next 2 years:  $140.

Yearly Energy Savings over the next 2 years:  $210 (lowered HDD power + 9 months of AC)

Likely near term Cost savings: $350.

That makes the decision, not a $700 one, but a $350.

 

Mhh... is $350 worth:

Reset of the bathtub curve / peace of mind

Reduced Noise

 

It very well might be.