unRaid and your electric bill

[GortWillSaveUs]

I've been running my unRaid for little more that one month now.

 

Just received my electric bill and it seems that it costs ~$30 per month to keep the unRaid running 24/7

I knew I would see a bump,....but I'm doing the math, and I need to find a way to have it running only when I need it.

2-4 hours a day (or every other day)

 

Does anyone use some form of power plan where the unRaid server is gracefully shut down if not used in x-number of minutes/hours?

I don't have a problem with going downstairs and manually powering it on,..but perhaps a WOL solution would be really cool too.

 

[bubbaQ]

$30 a month (which is is $360/year) is unrealistic. 

 

In the US, 1 Watt run 24x365 costs about $1/year, so that implies your server is pulling 360 Watts continuously.

 

Multiply the Watts being pulled by your server, times 8.76 to give you kWh for an entire year.

 

In the US, 1 kWh costs about $0.12, so a server that pulls 40 Watts, costs $42/year to run 24x365.... less in many places.

[jumperalex]

So what you just told us is that you started running a server in late April/early May ("little more than a month") and you told us that you are compared your April cooling bill to your May cooling bill?

 

What leads you to believe that your April and May bills would be equivilent enough that you can blame the entire increase on your server?  Did you not turn the AC on yet at all?

[chickensoup]

I've been running my unRaid for little more that one month now.

 

Just received my electric bill and it seems that it costs ~$30 per month to keep the unRaid running 24/7

I knew I would see a bump,....but I'm doing the math, and I need to find a way to have it running only when I need it.

2-4 hours a day (or every other day)

 

Does anyone use some form of power plan where the unRaid server is gracefully shut down if not used in x-number of minutes/hours?

I don't have a problem with going downstairs and manually powering it on,..but perhaps a WOL solution would be really cool too.

 

The addon SimpleFeatures has a sleep function which you could look into, I believe it can also incorporate WOL although I don't use the addon myself at present. I also agree that your figures are likely wrong, unless you have 20+ drives and none are set to spin down (ever). Your power bill isn't a very accurate way to measure power usage for something of that scale, a unit connected directly to your unRAID server like a Kill-A-Watt (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/7657/) would give you at least a rough estimate to within a few watts.

[ftp222]

$30 a month (which is is $360/year) is unrealistic. 

 

In the US, 1 Watt run 24x365 costs about $1/year, so that implies your server is pulling 360 Watts continuously.

 

Multiply the Watts being pulled by your server, times 8.76 to give you kWh for an entire year.

 

In the US, 1 kWh costs about $0.12, so a server that pulls 40 Watts, costs $42/year to run 24x365.... less in many places.

 

Agreed!

 

My unRAID server has 16 drives in it, is on 24/7, and spins down drives after 30 minutes of inactivity.  The server is running on ESXi and has other VM's accessing 2 other drives in the system constantly that do not spin down.  My total electric bill for last month - $41 - and that includes everything else in the house.

 

Your $30 estimate is not realistic.  Please post a list of your hardware so we can better assess what may be happening.  My guess is your A/C unit started running this month and that is what accounts for the majority of the $30.

 

[GortWillSaveUs]

$30 a month (which is is $360/year) is unrealistic. 

 

In the US, 1 Watt run 24x365 costs about $1/year, so that implies your server is pulling 360 Watts continuously.

 

Multiply the Watts being pulled by your server, times 8.76 to give you kWh for an entire year.

 

In the US, 1 kWh costs about $0.12, so a server that pulls 40 Watts, costs $42/year to run 24x365.... less in many places.

 

Guys: Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. And I agree wholeheartedly,....I'm not doing my homework and I'm just assuming the unRaid is the problem. As you all pointed out,..let me compare apples to apples by looking at last months and last years electric usage. Appreciate all the comments because you've helped me learn a few things.

[brian89gp]

If you want a more exact answer:

 

http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339434285&sr=8-1&keywords=kill-a-watt

[JonathanM]

Guys, don't jump on him too hard. Keep in mind all the computer does is turn electricity into heat, so for all intents and purposes it's like running a very small space heater year round. It helps heat the house in the winter, but you have to pay to extract that heat in the summer. $30 is probably high, but you can't gauge total impact on your electricity bill just by how much power the computer alone draws. During the winter months, the electricity to run a computer is practically free, because you would be paying to heat the house anyway.

[bubbaQ]

It "heats" only to the degree of a 40 to 60 Watt light bulb "heats."  Compared to the heating/cooling load of an average house, that is a drop in the bucket.

 

[JonathanM]

It "heats" only to the degree of a 40 to 60 Watt light bulb "heats."  Compared to the heating/cooling load of an average house, that is a drop in the bucket.

A single computer can disappear into the noise level of the overall heat load, granted. But the effect is still there, and not zero. I have a watt meter http://www.currentcost.com/ constantly logging my power usage, and I may be on the high end of tech usage, but I have a constant 800W-1000W computer and technology load that heats my house pretty effectively. If the outdoor temp is above 55F, I don't have to run any heat, my computers keep the house warm. Summer power bills are pretty brutal though.

[S80_UK]

My "idle load" for the house is about 400 watts - that includes server, set-top boxes, modems/routers/switches, a bunch of other stuff, pump for the fish pond, fridge, freezer, etc, (but no A/C to worry about).  My server accounts for only about 10% of the total.  So approx 40 watts, just over 1kwh per day, or about $9 a month, and that's with UK energy prices which are quite a bit higher than in the US, I believe.

[Influencer]

My power bill went down now that we are in summer months... But then again I only have electric heat...

 

The power bill, with 4 PCs and 1 server running 24/7, house cooled to 72 degrees, and everything else, is around $100 a month which is pretty good for around here. Not sure of the total draw of the server but I know it isn't adding $30 to the bill.

 

Also the heat produced may not be 0 but it is negligible. I would hardly blame it for the air conditioner working harder. A dirty air filter would have a greater impact than the server.

 

My server actually helps cool the house. Both exhaust fans blow out moderately cool air.

 

Sent from my HTC Vivid

[StevenD]

I have a rack with most of my servers in it:

 

2 x ESXi

1 x OpenFiler SAN (2 PS / 12 HDDs)

1 x unRAID (3PS / 11 HDDs)

1 x Windows Server 2008 R2 (2 PS / 12 HDDs)

1 x Fiber Channel Switch

2 x Ethernet switch

1 x 19" LCD monitor

1 x KVM

 

According to the UPS's, all of that pulls about 875 watts.  At $0.08/kWh, that's about $50/month...a small portion of my summer time electric bill.  I wish I had a way to figure out what the extra heat output is costing me in cooling costs.

 

[yannis]

So what you just told us is that you started running a server in late April/early May ("little more than a month") and you told us that you are compared your April cooling bill to your May cooling bill?

 

What leads you to believe that your April and May bills would be equivilent enough that you can blame the entire increase on your server?  Did you not turn the AC on yet at all?

 

Cooling bill? AC? Here in England we had an overnight low of 9 deg C and yesterday's daytime high was 14 deg C ( and of course it rained all day). 

[GortWillSaveUs]

$30 a month (which is is $360/year) is unrealistic. 

 

In the US, 1 Watt run 24x365 costs about $1/year, so that implies your server is pulling 360 Watts continuously.

 

Multiply the Watts being pulled by your server, times 8.76 to give you kWh for an entire year.

 

In the US, 1 kWh costs about $0.12, so a server that pulls 40 Watts, costs $42/year to run 24x365.... less in many places.

 

Thanks again bubbaQ for the great explanation!

 

A co-worker was able to lend me his Kill-a-Watt meter.

And here are the results:

 

With the server running and all 5 HDs spun up,..it pulls 175W

With all drives spun down, it drops to 143W

 

So according to your math where 1 Watt is about $1 per year,....175/12 = $14.58 per month

Of course that assuming constant 175W

 

With drives spun down 143/12 = 11.92 per month

 

While this may not break the bank,..in today's economy, I watch my budget very carefully.

If you've seen 2 teenage boys eat, you know what I mean.

 

I suppose my 2003 MOBO doesn't help,..since it has dual CPU's

I was planning on upgrading the MOBO and RAM anyway because I only have 4 SATA connections.

 

So,..once I replace these parts,..I'll run this test again and hopefully see a big improvement.

[jumperalex]

make sure to check your math ... understand how long will it take to save enough electricity to make up for the cost of the new parts.  That will mean making some guesses about how much power your new gear will take to run.

 

oh yeah and make sure you are not including your monitor in your power usage, those can be turned off.

 

Another option is to look into under-clocking and then under-volting the CPU.  Also make sure you aren't running more fans faster than they need be.  They draw power too.

[jumperalex]

 

My server actually helps cool the house. Both exhaust fans blow out moderately cool air.

 

Sent from my HTC Vivid

 

By the laws of thermodynamics that is not possible.  At best they push ambient air, the same temp that is being drawn in, but they do NOT push "cool" air.  Or to be more specific, your server is rejecting net energy, not absorbing it.

[Influencer]

By the same way a desk fan blows "cool" air. It may still be ambient temp but it feels cool blowing across your skin. I did not mean literally colder air than what is around it. Simply meant it is not adding heat to the house(ok I know it actually must add heat)

 

Just happy the server runs cool. My pc that is a bit more heavy duty blows out fairly warm air,

 

Sent from my HTC Vivid

[GortWillSaveUs]

Just tested my HTPC with an A6-3500 CPU.

 

36W in static mode. Wow! That's a big difference.