Holy Power Costs, batman!

Hey guys, sorry to interrupt the original topic.

IVB - Did you create that thread about Sage yet? I just want to make sure I didn't miss it. (Can't find it)

I too don't understand all the Sage hype. I know it's powerful as hell, but I can't figure out all that it can do via their site. I think IVB should redo their site. That lil info he posted above gave me more insight about their product, than everything else I've seen on their site :(

Thanks bro! When you create that thread, add the link to your signature too.....it'll be a doozie ;)
 
Working on it as we speak; i'm doing it offline first as it takes me a few drafts to get something clear.
 
Took a break from writing this up to check one of my old PCs that I gave to my kdis, my god what interesting results.

My Abit NF7S2 with the AMD3200 and 3 hard disks uses up 85W in normal mode, goes to 100W when checking the hard disk. Remember, my C2D was doing 150W/160W.

But that's not the interesting bit; I turned it off, dropped it down to 1 hard disk. Dang! It's now down to 65W normal, peaking to 80W when I'm accessing the hard disk! I'm going to slap a Moxa card in there to see what that does to the load but i'm sure it's less than yet another serial expander. So, it looks like i won't be going with the mATX PC in the media closet.

But, I *am* interested in seeing what CollinR's experiment with the Intel Little Valley and the NV5000 turns up; I may get one for that PC.
 
Ive been reading these power threads with interest. my KWh usage is over 4000kwH per month, but at $.06 per, so im still OK.

but why wouldnt/couldnt you use a laptop? something like the asus eeepc running windows XP and the ethernet->serial adapter? that would run something like 15-16W on all the time. then use another low power laptop to run sage and supply extenders.

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=183424

seems to me if youre concerned about power thatd be the way to go. maybe hack something together to trickle charge the battery so the system always runs on the battery and the power simply charges it?

i dunno, sounds logical to me.

IVB said:
Took a break from writing this up to check one of my old PCs that I gave to my kdis, my god what interesting results.

My Abit NF7S2 with the AMD3200 and 3 hard disks uses up 85W in normal mode, goes to 100W when checking the hard disk. Remember, my C2D was doing 150W/160W.

But that's not the interesting bit; I turned it off, dropped it down to 1 hard disk. Dang! It's now down to 65W normal, peaking to 80W when I'm accessing the hard disk! I'm going to slap a Moxa card in there to see what that does to the load but i'm sure it's less than yet another serial expander. So, it looks like i won't be going with the mATX PC in the media closet.

But, I *am* interested in seeing what CollinR's experiment with the Intel Little Valley and the NV5000 turns up; I may get one for that PC.
Click to expand...
 
You dirty polluting bastard :)

The realization that i've already got a PC that can be dialed down to run at 65W makes me change my plans and do this in 2 phases.

For Phase 1: Rather than dropping $500ish now on a super-low-poser PC now, I'll use that the lowish power PC as the media closet PC to directly drive all serial devices via a MOXA card. The only other location then would be the CCTV server, which requires a PCI slot as I have the NV5000. I'll see if I can lower the # of disks, graphics card, and power supply to see if I can drop the power draw from 150W to 75ish. I'll always need something more than 65W as i'll need more disks in that box. If that doesn't work, i'll see if the Intel Little Valley is viable.

For Phase 2: I'll continue with my conservation approach for all areas, including non-HA stuff. Assuming I can get rid of Tier 5, my incremental cost will be $0.32/Kwh. Assuming the laptop is 15W, and the serial server is 15W, i'd be saving 35W. That results in 26Kwh/month, or $8/month. That stuff would likely cost around $500, or 5 year ROI. That's longer than the likely lifetime of the laptop, so i'd likely not do it.
 
I see that MicroCenterPC now has the WD "Green" 1T hard drive for $199.99. This drive will change speed (and energy consumption) on demand. Also, with the signficant storage, you can eliminate multiple drives. Don't forget a good backup / redundant storage plan as all this energy savings get thrown out when your data goes away with a drive failure.

Maybe another measure is Storage / KwH?
 
Yeah, one more dumb stupid thing was not clueing in to how much power hard disks use. Regular hard drives are 11-13W each, the WD green drive is 8W. It is a savings for sure, but perhaps I shouldn't have been such a dumbass and used multiple smaller HDs just because I already owned them. I probably have 12 hard disks for data in the various PCs around the house. If I could get 2 500GB in a RAID1 and 3 750GB or 1TB in a RAID5, and a single 500GB green for the CCTV, i'd be set. And, that's only 6 data disks as opposed to the many that i've currently got.
 
jkmonroe said:
but why wouldnt/couldnt you use a laptop? something like the asus eeepc running windows XP and the ethernet->serial adapter? that would run something like 15-16W on all the time.
Click to expand...

I hooked the Kill a Watt up to my wife's laptop, and it is running 65 watts when on, and 20W when shut down (but still plugged in!!!) It's a brand new C2Dm, with a 15"ws LCD, and only a 4-cell battery.
 
IVB said:
Holy cow, I just found my latest powerbill. We have 113 Kwh @300% over the baseline, total kWH of 1025 (does that seem seriously high to anyone else?). That's $0.34878 per Kwh.

I broke out my Kill-A-Watt, my HTPC is running about 150W on average. At a 31 day month, that's 111 Kwh, which means that PC alone is costing me $39/month.

My god man, suddenly I get ROI on a Sage HDExtender plus IP-Serial Server or miniITX in <12 months.
Click to expand...



hah I just did the same thing..

I have a hp proliant ml570 g2 - 4x xeon mp 2.5 cpu - 4gb ram - 6x18gb u3 hd - 3x73gb u320 hd - 3x146gb u320hd - 2x 642 array controllers all running about 6vm's with 0 problems and not even utilized....

Server has 3x480w power supplies but only 2 are plugged in and being used....
I busted out my kill-a-watt as I was wondering how much power it was using.. and it is at about $53 (at $.18 a kw)
the machine I put in its place is a cheesy p4 2.8 w 2gb ram and it is using $9 a month... I just swapped it out 5 days ago and my proliant is now on ebay..

the proliant works great and runs great.... sooooo smooth... but with the price of gas going up and my wife in college I have to cut corners where I can...

I also lowered my electric bill via cf bulbs... I was at $350ish a month on electricity and got it down to about $194 and after removing the server I am hoping to be at $150ish.... and looking for other areas to cut...

I feel your pain... ;)
 
IVB said:
Holy cow, I just found my latest powerbill. We have 113 Kwh @300% over the baseline, total kWH of 1025 (does that seem seriously high to anyone else?). That's $0.34878 per Kwh.

I broke out my Kill-A-Watt, my HTPC is running about 150W on average. At a 31 day month, that's 111 Kwh, which means that PC alone is costing me $39/month.

My god man, suddenly I get ROI on a Sage HDExtender plus IP-Serial Server or miniITX in <12 months.
Click to expand...


Welcome to the world of 24/7 computer costs....

My power bill is $250+ / month. I take it back on geothermal and solar where I can...
 
DavidL said:
Michigan:
6742 KWH last month...$460 bill.
Geothermal (electric) heat at $0.04 / kwh
Residential electric (1118 kw/h) at $0.09 / kwh.

So let's see, move the same house to California....$3288 / month for electric. yowsa
Click to expand...

Might want to try reducing your usage. Consumers and DTE are working on the MPSC to increase rates AGAIN. We're at 0.09/kwh, and
they're shooting for 0.12.
 
Wow I didn't realize electric was so costly in some states. Thank god I live in a Province that produces more Hydro Electric power then it can use and sells the rest at a profit. 0.05940 here!
 
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