confusis
John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
Original poster
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
All monetary values in the below post are in NZ Dollars, which at time of posting is around 0.73 USD, 0.66 EUR or 0.59 GBP.
With my home living situation changing markedly not once but twice this year, it's time I looked at reducing my outgoings. One easy(ish) way of doing this is to reduce the power consumption of the house. (I already quit smoking earlier this year, saving me around $6000 a year!)
Firstly, I used part of a small work bonus to invest in LED lighting, replacing six 75W incandescent bulbs with 9W LED bulbs. These were focused in the most used areas, excepting the bathroom, which requires better sealed bulb, for obvious reasons. This saves me around $110/ year. Not bad for a $30 investment.
Secondly, I have stopped using the electric clothes drier, which cost me $1-2 a load (for 1 adult and 2 children, you can imagine this would add up quickly!) This would save me around $250 a year.
Thirdly, and what you would expect to me my biggest outlay in terms of power, my network setup.
This is the network as it stands;
Power consumption;
Minecraft Server; 195W @ Full load
My Workstation; 186W @ Full load
Kitchen PC; 51W @ Full Load
Kid's PC; 48W @ Full Load
This, of course, is not taking into account monitor power consumption, which is as follows;
Minecraft Server; - no screen
My Workstation; 20W x 2, 30W x 1 - 70W Combined
Kitchen PC; 35W
Kids PC; 34W
This equals a grand total of 619 watts at peak load. Yup, less than some people's SLI config! Per week this would cost me, excluding lighting, appliances and line charges, $38.50 NZ to run ($2k/year). This is the equivalent of 6 Big Mac burgers (Big Macs are a known value and are used in an official level for market comparisons, and currently cost NZ$6 each, no combo). Power costs me approx $0.23 per KWh including tax.
Now, we all know that these systems won't be at full load all day, every day. At an average, the systems use this power per week, based on estimated on times and load levels;
Minecraft Server; 16.38 KWh
My Workstation; 2.15 KWh
Kitchen PC; 1.44 KWh
Kid's PC; 0.57 KWh
Costing me around $4.70 / week. It's interesting how working out actual load figures changes the total! Is it worth optimising this value? Well, at $250 a year, It's around what I saved just by swapping out light bulbs and removing the clothes drier. At what point does the costs of optimisation outweigh the benefits?
What are your thoughts? I'd like to see what you would suggest for optimising all of this. I'm considering adding a HTPC and file server/NAS into the mix at some point soon, using spare parts, so power consumption may yet go up. What is your network's power consumption? It would be interesting to compare what I'm using versus what you are using. Are my calculations wrong? Tell me!
There are also other inefficiencies to take into account. Time and space are also major factors. How much time do I spend configuring and maintaining this network and household? Where does my power come from - is my home 'green'? These will be the topics of future posts.
Posted as a forum thread, rather than an article due to the unfinished and discussion nature of the content. I will collate into an article in the future
With my home living situation changing markedly not once but twice this year, it's time I looked at reducing my outgoings. One easy(ish) way of doing this is to reduce the power consumption of the house. (I already quit smoking earlier this year, saving me around $6000 a year!)
Firstly, I used part of a small work bonus to invest in LED lighting, replacing six 75W incandescent bulbs with 9W LED bulbs. These were focused in the most used areas, excepting the bathroom, which requires better sealed bulb, for obvious reasons. This saves me around $110/ year. Not bad for a $30 investment.
Secondly, I have stopped using the electric clothes drier, which cost me $1-2 a load (for 1 adult and 2 children, you can imagine this would add up quickly!) This would save me around $250 a year.
Thirdly, and what you would expect to me my biggest outlay in terms of power, my network setup.
This is the network as it stands;
Power consumption;
Minecraft Server; 195W @ Full load
My Workstation; 186W @ Full load
Kitchen PC; 51W @ Full Load
Kid's PC; 48W @ Full Load
This, of course, is not taking into account monitor power consumption, which is as follows;
Minecraft Server; - no screen
My Workstation; 20W x 2, 30W x 1 - 70W Combined
Kitchen PC; 35W
Kids PC; 34W
This equals a grand total of 619 watts at peak load. Yup, less than some people's SLI config! Per week this would cost me, excluding lighting, appliances and line charges, $38.50 NZ to run ($2k/year). This is the equivalent of 6 Big Mac burgers (Big Macs are a known value and are used in an official level for market comparisons, and currently cost NZ$6 each, no combo). Power costs me approx $0.23 per KWh including tax.
Now, we all know that these systems won't be at full load all day, every day. At an average, the systems use this power per week, based on estimated on times and load levels;
Minecraft Server; 16.38 KWh
My Workstation; 2.15 KWh
Kitchen PC; 1.44 KWh
Kid's PC; 0.57 KWh
Costing me around $4.70 / week. It's interesting how working out actual load figures changes the total! Is it worth optimising this value? Well, at $250 a year, It's around what I saved just by swapping out light bulbs and removing the clothes drier. At what point does the costs of optimisation outweigh the benefits?
What are your thoughts? I'd like to see what you would suggest for optimising all of this. I'm considering adding a HTPC and file server/NAS into the mix at some point soon, using spare parts, so power consumption may yet go up. What is your network's power consumption? It would be interesting to compare what I'm using versus what you are using. Are my calculations wrong? Tell me!
There are also other inefficiencies to take into account. Time and space are also major factors. How much time do I spend configuring and maintaining this network and household? Where does my power come from - is my home 'green'? These will be the topics of future posts.
Posted as a forum thread, rather than an article due to the unfinished and discussion nature of the content. I will collate into an article in the future
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