Will hosting my server 24/7 raise my electricity bill up?

[birthdaybrian]

Hey. I am planning on using one of my older computer since someone wanted me to host 24/7 again and I was planning on using a 13 year old Dell Dimension 2400 to host my server on and put Linux on that machine to give the computer more lives. I am wondering if leaving my computer idle will raise my electricity bill up because I had an argument with my mom saying that electronics must be stayed off all night.

Anyone who hosts 24/7, has your electricity bill gone higher while hosting all day? And what is the best green (Energy Savings) power supply that I can use for my 13 year old Dell Dimension for my server to keep the bill lower?

[BlazingEmpireHD]

I'm not thinking of a reason why it would raise your electricity bill any little bit. Hmmmmm, having a 24/7 server is good though. So those that want to play your server still can.  

 

Looking forward to it!

Edited December 18, 2016 by BlazingEmpireHD

[cascadia]

1 hour ago, birthdaybrian said:

Hey. I am planning on using one of my older computer since someone wanted me to host 24/7 again and I was planning on using a 13 year old Dell Dimension 2400 to host my server on and put Linux on that machine to give the computer more lives. I am wondering if leaving my computer idle will raise my electricity bill up because I had an argument with my mom saying that electronics must be stayed off all night.

Anyone who hosts 24/7, has your electricity bill gone higher while hosting all day? And what is the best green (Energy Savings) power supply that I can use for my 13 year old Dell Dimension for my server to keep the bill lower?

Look up the energy use of that Dell online or in the manual, and figure out how much it uses in a 24 hour period.  Then look up the cost of electricity in your area, which you can find here:

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/10/27/141766341/the-price-of-electricity-in-your-state

 

Use that to figure out your total costs oer day, and then see if that is too expensive or not.

 

There's also this:

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/whitepapers/the-drivers-and-benefits-of-edge-computing/?promo=7216&ftag=LGN-10-10aaa0i&cval=content-top-leaderboard

 

It says that a server typically uses several hundred dollars worth of energy in a year.

 

On a related topic that's not related to OpenRCT2, you can see what the least expensive power plant for any area in the U.S is here:

 

http://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2016/12/12/13914942/interactive-map-cheapest-power-plant

 

Using the interactive tool that's linked to on that page, you can see how so many coal mines are closing- natural gas, nuclear, and renewables are much less expensive, even before you take into account the cost of poorer health and pollution from coal, especially from global warming.

[birthdaybrian]

1 hour ago, cascadia said:

Look up the energy use of that Dell online or in the manual, and figure out how much it uses in a 24 hour period.  Then look up the cost of electricity in your area, which you can find here:

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/10/27/141766341/the-price-of-electricity-in-your-state

 

Use that to figure out your total costs oer day, and then see if that is too expensive or not.

 

There's also this:

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/whitepapers/the-drivers-and-benefits-of-edge-computing/?promo=7216&ftag=LGN-10-10aaa0i&cval=content-top-leaderboard

 

It says that a server typically uses several hundred dollars worth of energy in a year.

 

On a related topic that's not related to OpenRCT2, you can see what the least expensive power plant for any area in the U.S is here:

 

http://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2016/12/12/13914942/interactive-map-cheapest-power-plant

 

Using the interactive tool that's linked to on that page, you can see how so many coal mines are closing- natural gas, nuclear, and renewables are much less expensive, even before you take into account the cost of poorer health and pollution from coal, especially from global warming.

I see that I live in an area that has nuclear power plants and the final overnight cost is $8000.  And in my state, you pay $13.7 per kWh.

[birthdaybrian]

OK. I choose the Dell Dimension 2400 that was stored in my basement to be my server machine for this game. I am thinking of installing Linux on that machine. What is the best causal Linux OS that I can install and use on that machine?

[cascadia]

1 hour ago, birthdaybrian said:

I see that I live in an area that has nuclear power plants and the final overnight cost is $8000.  And in my state, you pay $13.7 per kWh.

Compared to coal and all the health and environmental costs it has, nuclear is a bargain (which you can actually see on the map).

[birthdaybrian]

Just now, cascadia said:

Compared to coal and all the health and environmental costs it has, nuclear is a bargain (which you can actually see on the map).

I noticed that when I was looking on the map.

[newton27]

13 hours ago, birthdaybrian said:

OK. I choose the Dell Dimension 2400 that was stored in my basement to be my server machine for this game. I am thinking of installing Linux on that machine. What is the best causal Linux OS that I can install and use on that machine?

The default power supply in the Dimension 2400 is a 250w unit, that is not always used of course. But still on the hi end.

What I've done with MoT is purchase Dell™ OptiPlex™ FX160 computers from ebay for $19.99 a piece. Older but serve the games just fine. The power supply for those are 50w, translating to less $ and less heat for home game hosting. Below are my ratings for power use here in Florida, our cost is $0.067 kWh.  I'm looking at less than $3 a month for each of my servers.

Quote

I see that I live in an area that has nuclear power plants and the final overnight cost is $8000.  And in my state, you pay $13.7 per kWh.

I think you mean $0.137 per KWh, with that rate and PC your looking at about $20 - $25 a month extra.

http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/energy-cost-calculator.htm

[birthdaybrian]

I am thinking of people contributing donations to my server so my mom can pay the electric bill if I host 24/7 with the 250 PSU in the Dell.

[absolutelyclam]

Short answer: Yes it'll increase your electric bill.

Long answer: No it won't increase it as much as you're expecting- your computer won't draw the full 250w, it'll pull only what it needs based on your usage. So it probably won't cost you a full $23 a month. I'd expect more like $5-15 a month difference. 

[janisozaur]

rpi3 can render openrct2's title sequence in 17fps in full HD. Given how drawing is the part we spend most time in, I think it should do just fine with a headless server. Knowing that OpenRCT2 is almost exclusively single-threaded, you should theoretically be fine hosting up to 4 headless servers on a single board which draws 2.5A @ 5V under load.