Shutting down NAS for experiment...

[King_PIN]

Simple question first.

I am hooking up a 16tb external hd to my router(usb) for my favorite tv shows.

To run Plex/Emby/jellyfin would I then install whichever server on my computer and then the coinciding app on my tv?

 

I'm shutting down my NAS which has 8 disks and the expansion unit that has 10 disks to see how much my electrical bill drops and more importantly to try and drop the temperature in my house as it's in my living room rack. I figure 18 disks running 24/7 must be using a lot of electricity and creating a substantial amount of heat since I have Emby in use 20 hours a day. 

My living room runs 4-5ºc hotter than the rest of the house with the AC on set to 21.5ºc. 

I'm renting the house so I'm not planning on doing any HVAC work to help out. 

It's also an old house with newer windows but the only windows that open are in the bedrooms and the kitchen so the living room is tough to get cool. 

Oh yeah and there are no air returns in the living room. 

[manikyath]

you dont need to run this experiment. just buy one of those power plug energy meters, plug the entire NAS into it, and boom you know how much heat it's contributing / how much power it's using. (power going into the NAS equals heat going out, within margin of error)

 

for reference, a human just existing in a room is about a 100 watt heat load.

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, King_PIN said:

I figure 22 disks running 24/7 must be using a lot of electricity and creating a substantial amount of heat since I have Emby in use 20 hours a day. 

Each spinning drive is going to be about 6 to 12 watts when it's spun up. The expansion unit itself will draw power as well. The only inescapable power draw is going to be the core NAS components, and they're only a fraction of it unless you're running something ancient.

 

What hardware are we talking about here? How much do you pay for electricity per kilowatt-hour? 

 

Consolidating to larger hard drives and a newer platform should noticeably cut power consumption. (Especially if you're running decade+ old enterprise hardware. Power consumption is the real cost of "free" hardware.)

 

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

just buy one of those power plug energy meters, plug the entire NAS into it, and boom you know how much heat it's contributing / how much power it's using.

+1 to this recommendation. A Kill-a-Watt meter is an addictive toy, because you'll want to know how much power all your devices are drawing.

 

Just to give you an idea, my previous NAS (a two-processor Dell PowerEdge server with a Quadro P2200 and a dozen hard drives) idled at around 200 watts. Its current incarnation draws a little less, because I upgraded to a newer single-socket server platform (lowering base system draw) but added more accessories (PCIe SSDs) that ate up the power saved.

[Kilrah]

How much data? My 48TB server draws about 30-40W idle.

[jaslion]

Get a watt meter and dont wait for the bill. You can instantly calculate the cost and heat output.

 

Then see what to do. If a 16tb drive is enough to get by and sounds like you dont have anything cricticalnrunning id say make a cheap simple nas box. 2x16tb raid 1 + a whatever low wattage strong enough cpu and send it. they make plenty of those now. Can easily go to sub 50w on MAX load here if you dont need much.

 

 

[DraconisMaximus]

43 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Consolidating to larger hard drives and a newer platform should noticeably cut power consumption. (Especially if you're running decade+ old enterprise hardware. Power consumption is the real cost of "free" hardware.)

Agreed. If f your 12 disk array can be consolidated into a single 16 TB drive, then just upgrading / consolidating to an array with fewer disks should grant a noticeable power use reduction. 

[DraconisMaximus]

2 hours ago, King_PIN said:

Simple question first.

I am hooking up a 16tb external hd to my router(usb) for my favorite tv shows.

To run Plex/Emby/jellyfin would I then install whichever server on my computer and then the coinciding app on my tv?

 

I'm shutting down my NAS which has 10 disks and the expansion unit that has 12 disks to see how much my electrical bill drops and more importantly to try and drop the temperature in my house as it's in my living room rack. I figure 22 disks running 24/7 must be using a lot of electricity and creating a substantial amount of heat since I have Emby in use 20 hours a day. 

You do realize that that means that your PC will be active 24/7 and under load 20/7.

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, DraconisMaximus said:

Agreed. If f your 12 disk array can be consolidated into a single 16 TB drive, then just upgrading / consolidating to an array with fewer disks should grant a noticeable power use reduction. 

At least two 16 TB drives, mirrored for redundancy.

 

One is none. Two is one.

[King_PIN]

*edited* my initial post.  Not sure where I got 22 drives from.  It's 18 drives total.  

 

It's a Qnap NAS and Qnap Expansion unit. 

Just over 200tb's with 12 external hd's for backup.  The external hd's only get powered on by remote switch once a month for a couple hours. 

I would love to just buy larger drives but I don't have the money. 

Same goes for buying the kilowatt meter. 

I already have the harddrive so it's not going to cost me anything but time. 

 

My electric bill is about $200 a month while multiple neighbours it's around $150. 

It was the same in my old house I lived in for 10 years before I moved here. 

Funny thing is they have kids, run the dishwasher everyday, washing machines and dryers sometimes twice a week. I live alone, do laundry once a month or month and a half, no dishwasher. Gas heat, gas dryer, gas water heater. 

 

Old pic as the smaller 10-14tb external hd's were replaced with larger ones. 

[Blue4130]

9 hours ago, King_PIN said:

 but I don't have the money. 

Same goes for buying the kilowatt meter. 

You can't find $11?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Electricity-Electrical-Consumption-Backlight-Protection/dp/B09BQNYMMM?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.rt8Z-v2MwbUqWy_IJOS4sVdmXjz_8MogbRonW5vPGgc_vhAp4PUc-aw4lXb9cstAazJPpQlTv4Jfol70ccluodeY1BBnaPtjNKMW1wVo7Q0ZphQhIkgJ6bIvNoJEEpvszRw75_6UiFooiKYGg0F0H64PXMhQeJAOeDF8C95m0npMANT_XsLQTbVN3-I_uVX8MIg34yEudTYOpjq9r80fFemm09O-3en5RH4xu8EfJ4WVHY-7Vd_LnrRTIhc1zawiRBsn-pCruyhGriv2gmr2Dg2JLzql2BMlHVf9dqIg3PI.QpmhvsHUNTznllEOYxRXKyLy_CDtGOAxptP8dmZkW8U&dib_tag=se&keywords=kill-a-watt&qid=1750545477&sr=8-5&th=1

[King_PIN]

So yeah I'm a dumbass. 

My UPS as you can see in my picture below has a real time digital monitoring and display. 

 

With my tv off and the NAS/Expansion unit at idle they are pulling 230 watts. 

With the tv on but not playing anything just in the menus power usage rises to 360 watts. 

With the tv on and Emby running power usage goes up to 470 watts. 

I also ran an extension cord from my computer to that UPS and my computer which is always on is 420 watts.  That includes monitor, 2 external hd's and a 12port powered USB hub. 

 

Electricity cost here is $0.14895/kWh

 

Following this formula: kWh = W × hr / 1000

890w 18hr/1000 = 16.02 kwh per day. 

16.02 x $0.14895 = $2.386179 per day or $71.59 per month if my math is correct. 

 

Realistically with the tv still running, no NAS/Exp. Unit I would save roughly 300-340 watts per day, $24 a month. 

[Echothedolpin]

3 hours ago, King_PIN said:

So yeah I'm a dumbass. 

My UPS as you can see in my picture below has a real time digital monitoring and display. 

 

With my tv off and the NAS/Expansion unit at idle they are pulling 230 watts. 

With the tv on but not playing anything just in the menus power usage rises to 360 watts. 

With the tv on and Emby running power usage goes up to 470 watts. 

I also ran an extension cord from my computer to that UPS and my computer which is always on is 420 watts.  That includes monitor, 2 external hd's and a 12port powered USB hub. 

 

Electricity cost here is $0.14895/kWh

 

Following this formula: kWh = W × hr / 1000

890w 18hr/1000 = 16.02 kwh per day. 

16.02 x $0.14895 = $2.386179 per day or $71.59 per month if my math is correct. 

 

Realistically with the tv still running, no NAS/Exp. Unit I would save roughly 300-340 watts per day, $24 a month. 

Possibly double as you’re having to remove that heat with the equivalent AC power.

[manikyath]

On 6/22/2025 at 3:40 PM, Echothedolpin said:

Possibly double as you’re having to remove that heat with the equivalent AC power.

except an AC moves several times more heat than the power it consumes.

[Echothedolpin]

On 6/23/2025 at 1:26 PM, manikyath said:

except an AC moves several times more heat than the power it consumes.

True, I said that wrong. Thank you!