Why the increase in the electric bill, and what's a Kill-a-Watt

I've been running my unRaid server (see prior posts) 24 hours a day for a little more that one month now. Just received my electric bill and it was about $30 more than last month. Yes, we've been running the air conditioners but it seems to be more when compared to last year, but I needed to understand what was going on. But how??

Well with a Kill-a-Watt meter and here's what one looks like.

Okay, but what does it do?
The meter once connected to your appliance will assess how efficient they really are. The display will count consumption by the kilowatt/hour, same as your local utility. You can track minute-by-minute changes in electric consumption as major appliances are turned on and off. It lets you track the amount of electricity that your household uses in real time. It helps you reduce your energy consumption and decrease your monthly bills. The unit displays the total cumulative appliance power consumption in kilowatt hours (KWH). The unit will display KWH from 0.01 KWH to 9999 KWH.


So, I plugged this into the wall, and then plugged my server into the meter. I then powered on the server. The meter showed that my server uses 175W. I then spun down the 5 internal hard drives, and the meter showed that it now used only 143W.

Knowing this information,..I could "guesstimate" how much it costs each month to run the server.
In the US, 1 Watt running 24x365 costs about $1/year. Multiply the Watts being pulled by the server, times 8.76 to give you kWh for an entire year.

In the US, 1 kWh costs about $0.12, so a server that pulls 40 Watts, costs $42/year to run 24x365.... less in many places. According to the math where 1 Watt is about $1 per year,....175/12 = $14.58 per month. Of course that assuming constant 175W. With drives spun down 143/12 = 11.92 per month

So, this helps explain why I saw a bump in my electric bill.

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So what's unRaid? and what's it used for?

Question: What is unRaid?
Answer: unRaid: is a piece of software that produced by the company Lime-Technology

Question: What does unRaid do?
Answer: unRAID Server is an embedded Network Attached Storage server Operating System designed to boot from a USB Flash device and specifically designed for digital media storage:

• Digital Video
• Digital Music
• Digital Images/Photos

Say what? In plain English please!

Well, let's explain it this way. Years ago, there were no digital cameras, so all pictures were printed out and usually stored away in a box somewhere. Then 20 years later, out comes the box of pictures.

With digital pictures, the actual pictures are rarely printed, and usually stored on a USB stick, an external hard drive, or on your computer's hard drive. Now suppose that hard drive dies, or you lose that USB stick. Some people have tons of pictures stored this way and have no backups at all.

So as a simple form of backup, you could copy all of your pictures to another hard drive. But supposing both hard drives die,....well,..I think you know the answer to that question already.

In the computer world, there's something called RAID. RAID is a method to create a redundant backup of data in case of a hardware failure. There are several types RAID, but we won't go there (at least not in this post). In simplest terms, 3 hard drives are used to copy the data to,..if one of the hard drives fails,..you remove it, put in a replacement, and the data is restored to that drive.

So then how does unRaid fit in?

Well typically standard RAID demands some special hardware that might be out of reach for some people.
unRaid simplifies the requirements, thus making it easier for anyone to use.

Still confused? Ask a question...

Pictures of the HTPC and unRaid server being built and completed

So here are the pictures I promised:

I started top put this together and in my excitement,..I realized that I need to take pictures.
So as you can see I've got the case apart, the RAM in, the PSU in, and the CPU cooler temporarily sitting on the PSU.

This keyboard is awesome!

Now the CPU Cooler is finally installed. That thing is amazing! and HUGE!! But it fits perfectly.

Figuring out the wiring and getting ready to pop in the MOBO.
Notice where I installed the SSD and see that the HDD is under the BDROM drive.
There was space to install another drive next to the HDD.

And, here's everything installed and the bracket back on the case.
Wiring could be better, but I found this to be really easy and I was extremely happy.
You should see the mess I made of the unRaid server. That case is huge, but the wiring is a mess.
Need to take a class on wiring.

 

Now installing Windows 7.
Notice the adapter cable sitting in front of the monitor.
Only later did I realize what it was for.....
I have to learn to read the manuals!!!

AND here my unRaid server. (now you're saying "What's an unRaid Server and what is it for?" now, that's to be explained in another post) It's in a temporary home,...which may end up to be a permanent home.
Where? The laundry room. The furnace is also in there,..and I was worried about heat, but temps have been fine.

and of course,....Lights out!

Well I hope these pictures help someone!!! Perhaps you you'd like to build one yourself,..or just want to ask questions. Go ahead,..I'll try to help out.

So what's XBMC on a HTPC???

Exactly my question!

I was recently researching something on Amazon when I can across a review that said, "I love this computer case and I use it for a HTPC running XBMC". I was puzzled as to why, (even though I'm into computers) I had never come across this before. Well, after further research I found that XBMC stands for X-Box Media Center and HTPC stands for Home Theater Personal Computer.

That discovery opened a Pandora's Box (or Rabbit's Hole) and eventually led me to building my own HTPC running XBMC. All I can say is, Boy I am glad I did some researching because this stuff is amazing!!!

Not only can XBMC run on just about operating system, but it allows you to play your DVD movies, View you pictures, Play your music, and with additional Add-Ons,..a whole boat-load of other things.

This build allows you to play movies in 1080p,..as well as in 3D, if you have the properly equipped HDTV. Here is my build list and I'd highly recommend these parts if you're thinking of building one.


Computer Case:
SilverStone Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX Media Center/HTPC Case ML03B (Black) $59.99

Power Supply:
SilverStone Strider 400W, 80 PLUS, Active PFC Power Supply ST40F-ES (Black) $48.99

CPU:
AMD A6-3500 APU with AMD Radeon 6530 HD Graphics 2.1/2.4GHz Socket FM1 65W Triple-Core Processor - Retail AD3500OJGXBOX $74.99

CPU Cooler:
Scythe BIG SHURIKEN 2 Rev B. 5-Heatpipe Universal Low Profile CPU Cooler (SCBSK-2100) $47.95

Motherboard:
ASRock MB-A75M Socket FM1/ AMD A75 FCH/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&GbE/ Micro ATX Motherboard $74.99

RAM
Kingston HyperX Genesis 4 GB Kit (2x2 GB Modules) 1866MHz DDR3 PC3-15000 240-Pin Non-ECC CL9 1.65V DIMM XMP Desktop Memory KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX $35.74

Solid State Hard Drive:
Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2 $80.99

BD-ROM:
LG UH12LS28K LightScribe 12x SATA Blu-Ray Combo Internal Drive, Bulk (Black) $57.39

Operating System:
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack $99.99

Wireless Keyboard:
IOGEAR Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black) $39.08

Remote:
Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition $15.41

I didn't buy an internal HD, since I already have a 2TB and a 1TB just laying around.



My next post will show pictures of the completed build, and then in additional posts, I'll discuss an unRaid Server. "A what???", you say...don't worry,..I'll explain,...so Stay tuned!