Sure but colo's dont operate on variances of power based on CPU. They operate on committed power to cabinet i.e. 120W per cabinet etc. and the ability to cool a fully loaded facility. If you had a thousand CPU's use 1W more all at the same time it's equal to about 9.5A. 1KX2W = 20A, 1KX3W=31A, etc. etc. -- Martin Hannigan (c) 617-388-2663 VeriSign, Inc. (w) 703-948-7018 Network Engineer IV Operations & Infrastructure hannigan@verisign.com

-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of james edwards Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 4:18 PM To: Alex Rubenstein Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Energy consumption vs % utilization?

...

Thats an insane statement.

Are you saying, "You are only wasting money on things if you aren't profitable" ?

/action shakes head.

No, I am not but my statement did sure sound like that was what I was saying. I do think it is apples or oranges comparing CPU % to total power used and coming up with a wasted factor. My colo needs X amps/hour just to run at idle, I don't call this waste. It is the cost of doing business. Power factor causes losses. So you need enough customers to cover this and other expenses.

I guess we need a definition of waste here.

I would say the the heat produced by pulling all the amp/hrs is waste. It could be possible to harvest this and reuse it elsewhere.

So, just because you are profitable does not mean there is no waste but it also depends on how you classify waste. Also, do the methods to avoid this waste justify (pay for over time) their use.

James H. Edwards Routing and Security Administrator At the Santa Fe Office: Internet at Cyber Mesa jamesh@cybermesa.com noc@cybermesa.com http://www.cybermesa.com/ContactCM (505) 795-7101