4 ms·

Nice and clean, great work! If you don't mind me asking, does your energy bill take a huge blow because of this? I had a modest homelab set up and had to start

Nice and clean, great work! If you don't mind me asking, does your energy bill take a huge blow because of this? I had a modest homelab set up and had to start shutting things off due to how much it costs to keep it running I apologize if I missed this info in the blog!

pm2222 3y ago
Perhaps there’s solar.
- hqsolomo 3y ago
  That would definitely be a big help, lol. I also imagine part of my problem is my house wiring- the previous owner had the place reno'd in '96 and clearly got the landlord special
- monstermunch 3y ago
  Correct, 17kw of solar on the roof
dheera 3y ago
Having a rack alone doesn't consume anything, it's what you put on the rack. I have a rack setup and most of the time it consumes around 200 watts during the daytime and 100 watts at night, but can spike upto 600 watts if I put a heavy CPU+GPU load on it. I also put my desktop into suspend at night, something which I think a lot more people with desktops could do. Don't run 24/7 services (e.g. Home Assistant) on your massive desktop with an i7/i9 and a GPU. Run that stuff on a NUC or Pi4 or anything that has low power consumption. Then turn your desktop on only when you're actually using it.
- hqsolomo 3y ago
  I get that but the blog discussed a pretty beefy setup. My whole rack still used less power than my gaming PC at load but after doing the math I ultimately saved more money by going serverless for my apps and dumping (non-critical) data into a B2 bucket on paper. In reality I just started shutting things off and only turn them on when I need them. I'm curious as to what others are doing to save costs if anything. I love the hobby but we're in a recession, lol!
  - getwiththeprog 3y ago
    MiniITX boards are low idle power, 17 watts for idle with a Ryzen 5600 compared to a full size boards 50 watts. I would no longer buy anything larger, even for a gaming machine.
    - hqsolomo 3y ago
      Amen on that. The past few rigs I built for myself were all ITX machines. I went through and undervolted my CPU, RAM, and GPU. Once my current gaming rig dies I'm just going to stick with the consoles for gaming until they goes to shit as well. In an era of abundance we seem to be trying to use more power to support what we already do, rather than rethinking what we do to use less power. It's a shame!
      - dheera 3y ago
        Honestly I could I could easily solar power all of my compute needs (and probably a lot more) from my apartment's roof. But at last, I'm a renter and my property management isn't going to allow that. We're literally wasting clean energy because of a bunch of rich turds hogging real estate with shitty rules about what you can't do. When my property changed management the new management even banned EV charging on the property and locked up all the outlets in the parking lot. These kind of management are not welcome in Silicon Valley but somehow they are here.
        hqsolomo 3y ago
        It jumbles my jimmies hearing about outright rejection of modern tech by industries that would best benefit from said tech. I'd almost be willing to bet money that your landlord would charge a "renewable energy" fee even if they're just dumping power back to the grid for $$$ even if they had the panels
    - dheera 3y ago
      I really wish more Mini-ITX boards came out that allowed GPUs to be horizontal so it could fit in a 2U case. Unfortunately making it vertical makes it 4U, negating the size advantages of Mini-ITX.
momirlan 3y ago
energy bill might go up, but the heating bill goes down ...
- hqsolomo 3y ago
  "Chestnuts roasting on an open server rack"
- RajT88 3y ago
  Great for the arctic circle.
- monstermunch 3y ago
  We don't do heating here in Houston. Maybe for the 2 days of Winter
  - ihattendorf 3y ago
    > Maybe for the 2 days of Winter That’s what the generator is for.
monstermunch 3y ago
I have 17kw of solar, so usually very close to $0 or below!
- hqsolomo 3y ago
  Holy smokes, living the dream! Kudos!
phito 3y ago
I had bought an used enterprise server (Dell something), but it just used too much power and made some much noise. It's not as professional or reliable as op's homelab, but I'm now hosting most of my stuff on an Intel NUC. It's a much better fit for my use case and budget

pm2222 3y ago

Perhaps there’s solar.

hqsolomo 3y ago
That would definitely be a big help, lol. I also imagine part of my problem is my house wiring- the previous owner had the place reno'd in '96 and clearly got the landlord special
monstermunch 3y ago
Correct, 17kw of solar on the roof

dheera 3y ago

Having a rack alone doesn't consume anything, it's what you put on the rack. I have a rack setup and most of the time it consumes around 200 watts during the daytime and 100 watts at night, but can spike upto 600 watts if I put a heavy CPU+GPU load on it. I also put my desktop into suspend at night, something which I think a lot more people with desktops could do. Don't run 24/7 services (e.g. Home Assistant) on your massive desktop with an i7/i9 and a GPU. Run that stuff on a NUC or Pi4 or anything that has low power consumption. Then turn your desktop on only when you're actually using it.

hqsolomo 3y ago
I get that but the blog discussed a pretty beefy setup. My whole rack still used less power than my gaming PC at load but after doing the math I ultimately saved more money by going serverless for my apps and dumping (non-critical) data into a B2 bucket on paper. In reality I just started shutting things off and only turn them on when I need them. I'm curious as to what others are doing to save costs if anything. I love the hobby but we're in a recession, lol!
- getwiththeprog 3y ago
  MiniITX boards are low idle power, 17 watts for idle with a Ryzen 5600 compared to a full size boards 50 watts. I would no longer buy anything larger, even for a gaming machine.
  - hqsolomo 3y ago
    Amen on that. The past few rigs I built for myself were all ITX machines. I went through and undervolted my CPU, RAM, and GPU. Once my current gaming rig dies I'm just going to stick with the consoles for gaming until they goes to shit as well. In an era of abundance we seem to be trying to use more power to support what we already do, rather than rethinking what we do to use less power. It's a shame!
    - dheera 3y ago
      Honestly I could I could easily solar power all of my compute needs (and probably a lot more) from my apartment's roof. But at last, I'm a renter and my property management isn't going to allow that. We're literally wasting clean energy because of a bunch of rich turds hogging real estate with shitty rules about what you can't do. When my property changed management the new management even banned EV charging on the property and locked up all the outlets in the parking lot. These kind of management are not welcome in Silicon Valley but somehow they are here.
      - hqsolomo 3y ago
        It jumbles my jimmies hearing about outright rejection of modern tech by industries that would best benefit from said tech. I'd almost be willing to bet money that your landlord would charge a "renewable energy" fee even if they're just dumping power back to the grid for $$$ even if they had the panels
  - dheera 3y ago
    I really wish more Mini-ITX boards came out that allowed GPUs to be horizontal so it could fit in a 2U case. Unfortunately making it vertical makes it 4U, negating the size advantages of Mini-ITX.

momirlan 3y ago

energy bill might go up, but the heating bill goes down ...

hqsolomo 3y ago
"Chestnuts roasting on an open server rack"
RajT88 3y ago
Great for the arctic circle.
monstermunch 3y ago
We don't do heating here in Houston. Maybe for the 2 days of Winter
- ihattendorf 3y ago
  > Maybe for the 2 days of Winter That’s what the generator is for.

monstermunch 3y ago

I have 17kw of solar, so usually very close to $0 or below!

hqsolomo 3y ago
Holy smokes, living the dream! Kudos!

phito 3y ago

I had bought an used enterprise server (Dell something), but it just used too much power and made some much noise. It's not as professional or reliable as op's homelab, but I'm now hosting most of my stuff on an Intel NUC. It's a much better fit for my use case and budget