this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023

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Couldn't afford the power bill anymore so I adapted and overcame. (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by JKMSDE@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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So my KW/h rate has gone from 0.0817 to 0.1315 in the last two years. I went from paying $219 a month for electric to $450+ and I could no longer justify this and needed to take action - this is what I have done.

For storage I had 3-R710's with 6-4tb drives each, I moved to a new to me QNAP with 6 brand new 20tb WD Red drives and moved all of the data to that and unplugged the R710's.
I moved ESXi and Guests from an r630 to a new to me Dell Precision 3650.
I moved PFSense from an R410 to a new to me Protectli Vault micro appliance.
I retired the Cisco Catalyst 3560-X in favor of a new to me low power HPE 48p selectable POE switch.
I put my backup host (Dell Optiplex with a 4th gen i5) running Veeam on a smart switch. I have a script that shuts the computer down after the backups complete and then an hour later the smart switch powers off. The smart switch powers on the computer and I have the bios set to power on the computer after a power outage. This happens three times a week.
I set a group policy to set the Windows power plan to balanced from high performance for my computer and my GFs computer. This has dropped both of our computers from using 150w+ to 20-30w at idle. Identical computers 11900k/3080ti EVGA FTW3
My torrent host is another Dell Optiplex with a 10th gen i5, I have that set to Windows power saver mode and max 45% CPU / min 0%, it uses less than 1w at idle now.
I recently install a whole home energy monitor into my main panel and integrated it into HomeAssistant so I can log and monitor. (see imgur picture)
On top of all of this I have set my water heater from 145F to 135F, unplugged unused devices in unused rooms too.

I am happy to say my mini production environment is now running stronger and cooler, the ambient air temp in the basement has dropped from 86F to 70F. The best part of this is I just got my latest energy bill. I went from $510 last month to $270 this month! Nothing else has changed other than what I have posted here today.

Check out this screenshot of the energy monitor, with both gaming desktops, both fans, and all the basement lights and TV/AV receiver powered right now, I am only using 600ish watts! Before that I was using over 2.5kw/h
https://imgur.com/a/uqblvyw

(page 2) 22 comments

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[–] PyroRider@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Come to germany, 38ct/kWh😅

[–] gargravarr2112@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Power in the UK has gone through the roof. I've downsized my lab as much as I can and have at times wondered if I should shut it down completely.

Originally I was running an EdgeRouter 4, Zyxel 48-port managed switch and custom-built NAS with an i3-9100T, 32GB ECC and 6x 12TB SAS drives in a zpool. The NAS did everything - VMs, storage, backups etc. but it was pulling quite a lot of power.

A while back I ran a USFF PC as my server, which idled at 8W. Versus my 200W Xeon machine at the time, it paid for itself in 12 months. I dug that out and moved the VMs onto it. Storage went onto an ARM NAS. I was running too many VMs for a single USFF even maxed out, so I bought another 2 of them (identical). Now I run them in a Proxmox cluster. I use a passive cooled HP 1810 managed switch and an EdgeRouter Lite for the network, plus an Apple Airport with its transmitter dialled down to 25%. The ARM machine is much slower than my ZFS NAS, but it is much lighter on power - at that point, the HDDs are the significant draw, so I only run 2 spinners that are non-redundant and make sure they're backed up to cold storage. I also power up my ZFS machine once a month or so and sync the data from it. Other than that, I keep the big x86 machines shut down until needed.

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[–] Brilliant_Sound_5565@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I'm glad I don't run a server like this anymore, used.to years ago, migrated it all over to centralized nas storage and mini pcs running proxmox, uses a quarter of the power of one of these big old servers, no noise other then the large 10cm fan in the back of the nas. Much better for home use for me anyway and I can leave it on 24/7 without the worry of leaving it on

[–] priestoferis@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could you add a little detail about the energy monitoring? What kind of hardware is that? I guess it measures overall power usage?

[–] JKMSDE@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Check this out. I started with a different monitor that I WAS NOT happy with, I used it for less than 24h. I ordered the one in the screenshot at 5pm Saturday 11/11/23 and it was delivered by 11pm and I wrapped the install up by 1am on the 11/12/2023; I love living 3 miles from an Amazon Warehouse.

Images: https://imgur.com/a/glKm0e3
Product: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CJGPHL9?th=1
How-To install: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q62pihBwB0
HA Integration GIT: https://github.com/magico13/ha-emporia-vue?search=1

[–] Antexa@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you mind to share your Yaml file from your HA dashboard ? :) Amazing reduction cost, nicely done

[–] JKMSDE@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/integration-request-eyedro-solar-ready-home-wifi-energy-monitor-eyefi-2/246656/17

[–] SillyLilBear@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

0.13 would save me a lot of money

[–] Kharenis@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Wild, you pay like 1/3 of what I do for electricity, and yet if I were living in the states I'd be earning 3x what I do here.

[–] IStoppedCaringAt30@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn you had a lot of hardware for not a lot of use. Everyone wants enterprise gear but forgets it's power hungry.

[–] JKMSDE@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Yup

[–] Firm_Newspaper3370@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

How much did you spend on the upgrades?

[–] Kintaro81@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Do you need 135F for water? I set to 112F.

example: During a shower why mix hot (135F) and cold water to have (112F) when I can use only hot water that not burn?

How about move Torrent client on the QNAP to poweroff the optiplex?

[–] lJakel@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Where do you live? Here in Ohio they raised the rate to 11-12 cents. However, you are allowed to shop for your rate and I pay 4 cents/kwh

[–] electrowiz64@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I’m only having 1 rack with a consumer class CPU where I’ll be buying micro PCs for the rest

[–] AdderallBuyersClub2@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

this is why I jumped the meter when I bought my home. has a smart meter :-)

[–] FaTheArmorShell@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

What are you running in the Precision 3650 and what was the cost for it?

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