Nearly 26,000 kWh Was Used On Linux Benchmarking In 2016

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Nearly 26,000 kWh Was Used On Linux Benchmarking In 2016

For those curious how much power is consumed with our constant flow of benchmarks and working 365 days per year, 2016 rang in at 25,943 kWh...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=25934-kWh-2016-Power

[TumultuousUnicorn]

I'm curious about price; how many cost 1kWh?
26MWh seems enormous. All these servers need to run H24 everyday?

[Michael]

I'm curious about price; how many cost 1kWh?
26MWh seems enormous. All these servers need to run H24 everyday?

No, Phoromatic powers the servers on/odd when needed for benchmarking. Can't even power all the systems on at once without tripping all the circuit breakers.

Not sure what the effective price per kWh is offhand since they charge sales tax on top of the cost, plus a flat "delivery fee" each month and some other charges tacked on top of just the basic kWh cost.

[przemoli]

In Poland changing company that sells electricity can save 20-50% of it.
It's the same power in the end just less "greedy" middleman.

[Michael]

In Poland changing company that sells electricity can save 20-50% of it.
It's the same power in the end just less "greedy" middleman.

No, in the US at least this area in the midwest there is only ever one power provider for a given area.

[CMDRZOD]

Hi Michael. Just to further my email this morning, existing circuits can easily be upgraded to 240v. A 2 pole breaker would replace the single pole 120v breaker in the panel. The ends on the PSU's and receptacles would need to be replaced as well. This would increase efficiency by 5% or more at high PSU loading. At lower loads (~50%) I would expect 1-2% efficiency increase.

[Michael]

Hi Michael. Just to further my email this morning, existing circuits can easily be upgraded to 240v. A 2 pole breaker would replace the single pole 120v breaker in the panel. The ends on the PSU's and receptacles would need to be replaced as well. This would increase efficiency by 5% or more at high PSU loading. At lower loads (~50%) I would expect 1-2% efficiency increase.

Wouldn't the wiring need to be replaced for 240V as well? I've never dealt with 240V work myself. Fortunately, all of the electrical is within metal conduit, but yeah for just a 1~5% increase in efficiency, not yet worth calling an electrician out (I prefer not opening up the breaker box nor experienced with 240V requirements) until I have an electrician out here for other work in the future.

[CMDRZOD]

No the existing wiring could be used for 240v, as long as you properly replace each receptacle on the circuit with a 240v 15 amp 2 wire with ground receptacle, with a 2 pole 15 amp breaker in the panel. Like I say, at high PSU loads you could be looking at over 5% better efficiency, depending on the PSU used.

Good idea running all of the electrical in conduit. At least in this case all of the existing 120 volt wiring can still be used for higher voltage circuits. The lowest rating of any residential cable I've ever seen is 300 volt, so all household wiring is capable of being used in this manner as long as the receptacles and breakers are replaced.

If you are not sure what you are doing, I recommend calling an electrician. I would do it for free if I wasn't on the other side of the continent. I will say household electrical is not too complicated and many books can be picked up to learn basic household wiring.

[Mark Rose]

I use about 15 MWh/year for my computing projects. I have some thoughts:

The first is to use only 80 Plus Gold or better power supplies. Every watt you save also reduces your AC needs. For my usage, spending an extra $50 bucks on a power supply pays itself back in less than two years since I run my machines 24/7. You will need to calculate your own numbers, considering watts used per system and powered-on time.

Graphics cards eat up a lot of power, even when doing nothing. A GTX 580 uses 50 watts at idle. Rotational media also eats a lot.

Fans can use a surprising amount of electricity, including CPU fans. Under high load, Intel stock fans sweat. I'm replacing my stock fans with Arctic Cooling i11's. They're quiet, performant, and inexpensive when on sale. I'm going to replace the coolers on a four node cluster today and I'll report back on the watts saved. I didn't think to measure that before. I do know the cluster consumes about 5 watts more per degree Celsius in the room and it only has CPU fans.

Share power supplies between systems to get the power usage into efficiency peak between 20% and 80%. The above mentioned cluster runs off a single power supply with splitter cables. Only 80 Plus Titanium supplies are rated for efficiency at 10% load, though their high cost may not be worth it. If you're using wake-on-lan, the low efficiency when powered off may be sucking a lot of electricity. I would measure the idle and power off consumption of everything. It may be cost effective to get a switched power distribution unit.

If there is differential time-of-day pricing, take advantage of that.

If you do a lot of cooking, consider switching to a natural gas oven and range. It's nicer to use, too. Likewise with hot water, where an on-demand gas unit will save you money if you use a lot. If electricity is really expensive for you, you can also get a natural gas clothes dryer and air conditioner. You have to run the numbers to see what makes sense.

[cj.wijtmans]

Look at the effeciency curve of your power supply and run it where its most efficient can save you a lot more than 5%.