how much electricity my host consume

saurav Gautam · 07 Nov 2011

Hi i want to turn my desktop-pc to a hosting server/webserver.. For that the monitor, mouse and keyboard will be disconnected and only cpu will be turned on for 24 hours.. I removed the power button such that it will be automatically switched on after power cuts.... Now i want to know how much of electricity (in kwh) will my that system consume in i month.... Can anybody help me? I want to calculate whether it is economic to purchase a hosting space with other servers or to establish a server of my own..

carwiz · 07 Nov 2011

The only way to know for sure is to use a monitor. You don't say where you are but P3 makes a "Kill A Watt" monitor that will tell you exactly how much electricity is consumed via the power cord.

Here's an example: Amazon.com: P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor: Electronics

Sedril · 07 Nov 2011

My media center is about 70 watts without the monitor, maybe a tad less....

Wishmaster · 07 Nov 2011

As suggested, use a Kill-O-Watt to determine exactlly how much power the PC will pull from the wall, at a typical load that it will be under.
Then do the math from there.

One other thing, if saving electricity is the main goal you may want to invest in a Gold rated power supply.
Without knowing the exact specs, it sounds like the system will be a fairly low power system, hich will limit your options a bit.

Seasonic has some low power Gold units starting at 400W and up.
Corsair also has good Gold units, but they start at 650W and up I believe, which is just too big, and way overkill.

The Seasonic for example is approx 88-90% effecient.
Which means it will use 88-90% of the power it pulls from the wall, resulting in less electricty used. It will essentially need to pull less from the wall to meet the PCs power demand.

This will be an investment now, but will save money over the long term.
It may or may not not be worth it to you.
For such a low power draw setup anyway, I would think it may not be worth it .. but it really depends on how well the one have is doing as it is.

Tarka Dal · 07 Nov 2011

A good and accurate guess is 50Kwh per month. Multiply that by how much you pay for a Kilowatt and you'll find the answer.
For instance.
13.5p x 50 Kwh = £6,75p per month adding tax at 20% = £8.10 per month.

Investing in another product to save money on electricity would be fruitless as you will just be waisting money. Electricity is cheaper than buying a product to save electricity.

rraod · 08 Nov 2011

To save power disconnect all the unnecessary devices (additional HDDs, CD/DVD drives etc.), from the system and use a good SMPS. Keep it in a well ventilated area, so there will be no heat build-up and cause the fans to run and consume more power.

Another way to run a low power setup would be to use a laptop. Yes! you can use a laptop for a web server. A laptop would take only about 15-20W. With the battery backup it will continue to work even in power cuts.

So number of units per month would be 20x24x30 = 14.4 kWh or 14.4 units/month.

If the unit cost is approx. Rs 6.00/unit, total cost of running the server would be 14.4x6 = Rs. 86.40

Zepher · 08 Nov 2011

What exactly would you be hosting?
Hosting Websites may be blocked by your ISP.
Your upload connection speed will be your limiting factor on how well the webserver operates with concurrent connections.

A web host can be cheap, as low as $3/month.
If your machine uses 100 watts, and at 15 cents/Kw it is $5.40/month.
your rates will most likely vary, we have peak and off-peak rates with our electric provider.

Corazon · 08 Nov 2011

Some great comments have been made here, but I have one concern to add:

You shouldn't be relying on your server to power back up after a power loss and just boot up without a problem. A sudden power loss leaves Windows and running apps in an inconsistent state and can cause data loss too. Worst case, it'll just BSOD or freeze at some point during startup and sit there doing nothing, until someone looks at it.

The laptop-as-a-server idea is a good one, if done right. You can set up the system to shut down automatically before the battery runs out, then it'll reboot without a problem once power comes back.

The same can be done with a PC and a UPS such as the ones made by APC.

saurav Gautam · 08 Nov 2011

there is no problem with ISP. I requested my isp to allow me consistent external Ip and it did so.. My internet speed is 3mbps and upload speed is satisfactory.. We have back-up inverter for continuous power supply.

will laptop be a good idea? will that not get damaged? that small fan will it not stop rotating when the system is made to run for 24 hours? I will host 5 different websites from that system. 1 for an overseas company. and 4 are personal websites of me and my friends. The expected traffic is not that high...

Corazon · 09 Nov 2011

If the laptop is kept in a dust-free cool location, out of sunlight during the day, it should be fine. It all depends on CPU usage of course, but I would expect it to be mostly idle with occasional spikes during busy times.

You might additionally put an active cooling pad underneath the laptop. Power management, both in the Windows power plan and for individual devices in Device Manager, will take care of the rest.

Question: is the machine going to be running Windows or Linux? What about the web server? If one of the websites is for an overseas company you wanna make very sure the software environment is stable as a rock.