5 ms·

The internet says 100W idle, so maybe more like $40-50 electricity, depending on where you live could be cheaper could be more expensive. Makes me wonder if I

The internet says 100W idle, so maybe more like $40-50 electricity, depending on where you live could be cheaper could be more expensive. Makes me wonder if I should unplug more stuff when on vacation.

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
> Makes me wonder if I should unplug more stuff when on vacation. What's the margin on unplugging vs just powering off?
- dijit 1y ago
  By "off" you mean, functionally disabled but with whatever auto-update system in the background with all the radios on for "smart home" reasons - or, "off"?
- Symbiote 1y ago
  That also depends on the country you live. The EU (and maybe China?) have been regulating standby power consumption, so most of my appliances either have a physical off switch (usually as the only switch) or should have very low standby power draw. I don't have the equipment to measure this myself.
nine_k 1y ago
I was surprised to find out that my apartment pulls 80-100W when everything is seemingly down during the night. A tiny light here and there, several displays in sleep mode, a desktop idling (mere 15W, but), a laptop charging, several phones charging, etc, the fridge switches on for a short moment. The many small amounts add up to something considerable.
- ToucanLoucan 1y ago
  I got out of the homelab game as I finished my transition from DevOps to Engineering Lead, and it was simply massively overbuilt for what I actually needed. I replaced an ancient Dell R700 series, R500 series, and a couple supermicros with 3 old desktop PCs in rack enclosures and cut my electric bill nearly $90/month. Fuckin nutty how much juice those things tear through.
- amatecha 1y ago
  Yeah it kinda puts it all into perspective when you think of how every home used to use 60-watt light bulbs all throughout. Most people just leave lights on all over their home all day, probably using hundreds of watts of electricity. Makes me realize my 35-65w laptop is pretty damn efficient haha
rogerrogerr 1y ago
100W over a month (rule of thumb 730 hours) is 73kWh. Which is $7.30 at my $0.10/kWh rate, or less than $25 at (what Google told me is) Cali’s average $0.30/kWh.
- mercutio2 1y ago
  Your googling gave results that were likely accurate for California 4-5 years ago. My average cost per kWh is about 60 cents. Rates have gone up enormously because the cost of wildfires is falling on ratepayers, not the utility owners. Regulated monopolies are pretty great, aren’t they? Heads I win, tales you lose.
  - lukevp 1y ago
    60 cents per kWh? That’s shocking. Here in Oregon people complain about energy prices and my fully loaded cost (not the per kWh but including everything) is 19c. And I go over the limit for single family residential where I end up in a higher priced bracket. Thanks for making me feel better about my electricity rate. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. The utility companies should have to pay to cover those costs.
  - cogman10 1y ago
    Depends entirely on the utilities board doing the regulation. That said, I'm of the opinion that power/water/internet should all be state/county/city ran. I don't want my utilities companies to have profit motives. My water company just got bought up by a huge water company conglomerate and, you guessed it, immediate rate increases.
    - SoftTalker 1y ago
      Most utilities, even if ostensibly privately-owned, are profit-limited and rates must be approved by a regulatory board. Some are organized as non-profits (rural water and electric co-ops, etc.) This is in exchange for the local monopoly. If your local regulators approved the merger and higher rates, your complaint is with them as much as the utility company. Not saying that some regulators are not basically rubber stamps or even corrupt.
titanomachy 1y ago
100W continuous at 12¢/kWh (US average) is only ~$9 / month. Is your electricity 5x more expensive than the US average?
- mercutio2 1y ago
  Not OP, but my California TOU rates are between a 40 and 70 cents per kWh. Still only $50/month, not $150, but I very much care about 100W loads doing no work.
  - cjbgkagh 1y ago
    Those kWh prices are insane, that’ll make industry move out of there.
    - selkin 1y ago
      Industrial pays different rates than homes. That said, I am not sure those numbers are true. I am in California (PG&E with East Bay community generation), and my TOU rates are much lower than those.
      - mrkstu 1y ago
        If he’s only paying $50 most of it is connection fees and low usage distorting his per kWh price way up.
      - mercutio2 1y ago
        There are 3 different components of PG&E electricity bills, which makes the bill difficult to read. I am also in PG&E East Bay community generation, and when I look at all components, it’s: Minimum Delivery Charge (what’s paid monthly, which is largely irrelevant, before annual true-up of NEM charges): $11.69/month Actual charges, billed annually, per kWh: Peak NEM charge: $.62277 Off-Peak NEM charges: $.31026 Plus 3-20% extra (depending on the month) in “non-bypassable charges” (I haven’t figured out where these numbers come from), then a 7.5% local utility tax. Those rates do get a little lower in the winter (.30 to .48), and of course the very high rates benefit me when I generate more energy than I consume (which only happens when I’m on vacation). But the marginal all-in costs are just very high. That’s NEM2 + TOU-EV2A, specifically.
p12tic 1y ago
Depends on a server. This test got 79W idle for _two socket_ E5 2690-V4 server. https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-system-x3650-m5-workhorse-2u-server-review/ https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-system-x3650-m5-workhors...

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago

> Makes me wonder if I should unplug more stuff when on vacation. What's the margin on unplugging vs just powering off?

dijit 1y ago
By "off" you mean, functionally disabled but with whatever auto-update system in the background with all the radios on for "smart home" reasons - or, "off"?
Symbiote 1y ago
That also depends on the country you live. The EU (and maybe China?) have been regulating standby power consumption, so most of my appliances either have a physical off switch (usually as the only switch) or should have very low standby power draw. I don't have the equipment to measure this myself.

nine_k 1y ago

I was surprised to find out that my apartment pulls 80-100W when everything is seemingly down during the night. A tiny light here and there, several displays in sleep mode, a desktop idling (mere 15W, but), a laptop charging, several phones charging, etc, the fridge switches on for a short moment. The many small amounts add up to something considerable.

ToucanLoucan 1y ago
I got out of the homelab game as I finished my transition from DevOps to Engineering Lead, and it was simply massively overbuilt for what I actually needed. I replaced an ancient Dell R700 series, R500 series, and a couple supermicros with 3 old desktop PCs in rack enclosures and cut my electric bill nearly $90/month. Fuckin nutty how much juice those things tear through.
amatecha 1y ago
Yeah it kinda puts it all into perspective when you think of how every home used to use 60-watt light bulbs all throughout. Most people just leave lights on all over their home all day, probably using hundreds of watts of electricity. Makes me realize my 35-65w laptop is pretty damn efficient haha

rogerrogerr 1y ago

100W over a month (rule of thumb 730 hours) is 73kWh. Which is $7.30 at my $0.10/kWh rate, or less than $25 at (what Google told me is) Cali’s average $0.30/kWh.

mercutio2 1y ago
Your googling gave results that were likely accurate for California 4-5 years ago. My average cost per kWh is about 60 cents. Rates have gone up enormously because the cost of wildfires is falling on ratepayers, not the utility owners. Regulated monopolies are pretty great, aren’t they? Heads I win, tales you lose.
- lukevp 1y ago
  60 cents per kWh? That’s shocking. Here in Oregon people complain about energy prices and my fully loaded cost (not the per kWh but including everything) is 19c. And I go over the limit for single family residential where I end up in a higher priced bracket. Thanks for making me feel better about my electricity rate. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. The utility companies should have to pay to cover those costs.
- cogman10 1y ago
  Depends entirely on the utilities board doing the regulation. That said, I'm of the opinion that power/water/internet should all be state/county/city ran. I don't want my utilities companies to have profit motives. My water company just got bought up by a huge water company conglomerate and, you guessed it, immediate rate increases.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    Most utilities, even if ostensibly privately-owned, are profit-limited and rates must be approved by a regulatory board. Some are organized as non-profits (rural water and electric co-ops, etc.) This is in exchange for the local monopoly. If your local regulators approved the merger and higher rates, your complaint is with them as much as the utility company. Not saying that some regulators are not basically rubber stamps or even corrupt.

titanomachy 1y ago

100W continuous at 12¢/kWh (US average) is only ~$9 / month. Is your electricity 5x more expensive than the US average?

mercutio2 1y ago
Not OP, but my California TOU rates are between a 40 and 70 cents per kWh. Still only $50/month, not $150, but I very much care about 100W loads doing no work.
- cjbgkagh 1y ago
  Those kWh prices are insane, that’ll make industry move out of there.
  - selkin 1y ago
    Industrial pays different rates than homes. That said, I am not sure those numbers are true. I am in California (PG&E with East Bay community generation), and my TOU rates are much lower than those.
    - mrkstu 1y ago
      If he’s only paying $50 most of it is connection fees and low usage distorting his per kWh price way up.
    - mercutio2 1y ago
      There are 3 different components of PG&E electricity bills, which makes the bill difficult to read. I am also in PG&E East Bay community generation, and when I look at all components, it’s: Minimum Delivery Charge (what’s paid monthly, which is largely irrelevant, before annual true-up of NEM charges): $11.69/month Actual charges, billed annually, per kWh: Peak NEM charge: $.62277 Off-Peak NEM charges: $.31026 Plus 3-20% extra (depending on the month) in “non-bypassable charges” (I haven’t figured out where these numbers come from), then a 7.5% local utility tax. Those rates do get a little lower in the winter (.30 to .48), and of course the very high rates benefit me when I generate more energy than I consume (which only happens when I’m on vacation). But the marginal all-in costs are just very high. That’s NEM2 + TOU-EV2A, specifically.

p12tic 1y ago

Depends on a server. This test got 79W idle for _two socket_ E5 2690-V4 server. https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-system-x3650-m5-workhorse-2u-server-review/ https://www.servethehome.com/lenovo-system-x3650-m5-workhors...