I've run a SheevaPlug at home for a few years now. I don't do anything fancy with it, but it does what I need it to do. Mostly that is file server, web server, jump-box for network testing. Also testing different linux software for this and that... (Quagga runs nicely, but won't hold a full BGP table :) There are no moving parts in my home computer/networking gear, unless my laptop is running. That was the goal for me. I recently grabbed a couple of TPLink WR703N devices to mess around with as well, but I haven't had a chance to dig into that much. The internet tells me that the Sheeva uses about 5 Watts of power. Along with my wireless router and DSL modem I might be under 10 Watts, but I really don't know how much power a wireless modem uses. Oh and I also have native IPv6 on my DSL. I like to brag about that whenever I can. Marcel On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 4:13 PM, Jeroen van Aart <jeroen@mompl.net> wrote:
After reading a number of threads where people list their huge and wasteful, but undoubtedly fun (and sometimes necessary?), home setups complete with dedicated rooms and aircos I felt inclined to ask who has attempted to make a really energy efficient setup?
This may be an interesting read, it uses a plugcomputer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/11/diy_zero_energy_home_server/page2.ht...
Admittedly I don't have a need for a full blown home lab since I am not a network engineer, I'm more of a sysadmin/network admin/programmer kind of person... So I can make do with a somewhat minimal set up. But I *do* have tunneled IPv6 from home ;-)
In my current apartment in addition to an el cheapo DSL modem that probably wastes about 10 watts and a "sometimes on" PC workstation I used to have an always on thinkpad (early 2000s model) as my main desktop system and an always on G4 system (pegasos2 in case you care) acting as a mail/web/ssh server. The thinkpad was a refurbished model and it was quite stable, up to 500 days of uptime during its last years. But the hardware slowly disintegrated and when the gfx card died I retired it.
Right now my always on server is a VIA artigo 1100 pico-itx system (replacing the G4 system) and my "router/firewall/modem" is still the el cheapo DSL modem (which runs busybox by the way). I have an upgraded workstation that's "sometimes on", it has a mini itx form factor (AMD phenom2 CPU). I use debian on all systems.
I haven't measured it but I think if the set up would use 30 watts continuously (only taking the always on systems into account) it'd be a lot. Of course it'll spike when I fire up the workstation.
It's not extremely energy efficient but compared to some setups I read about it is. The next step would be to migrate to a plugcomputer or something similar (http://plugcomputer.org/).
Any suggestions and ideas appreciated of course. :-)
Thanks, Jeroen
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