homelab-optimized/docs/admin/cost-energy-tracking.md

Cost & Energy Tracking

Tracking expenses and power consumption

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Overview

This document tracks the ongoing costs and power consumption of the homelab infrastructure.

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Hardware Costs

Initial Investment

Item	Purchase Date	Cost	Notes
Synology DS1821+ (Atlantis)	2023	$1,499	8-bay NAS
Synology DS723+ (Calypso)	2023	$449	2-bay NAS
Intel NUC6i3SYB	2018	$300	Used
Raspberry Pi 5 16GB	2024	$150
WD Red 8TB x 6 (Atlantis)	2023	$1,200	RAID array
WD Red 4TB x 2 (Calypso)	2023	$180
Various hard drives	Various	$500	Existing
UPS	2023	$200

Total Hardware: ~$4,478

Recurring Costs

Item	Monthly	Annual
Electricity	~$30	$360
Internet (upgrade)	$20	$240
Cloud services (Backblaze)	$10	$120
Domain (Cloudflare)	$5	$60

Total Annual: ~$780

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Power Consumption

Host Power Draw

Host	Idle	Active	Peak	Notes
Atlantis (DS1821+)	30W	60W	80W	With drives
Calypso (DS723+)	15W	30W	40W	With drives
Concord NUC	8W	20W	30W
Homelab VM	10W	25W	40W	Proxmox host
RPi5	3W	8W	15W
Network gear	15W	-	25W	Router, switch, APs
UPS	5W	-	10W	Battery charging

Monthly Estimates

Idle:     30 + 15 + 8 + 10 + 3 + 15 + 5 = 86W
Active:  60 + 30 + 20 + 25 + 8 + 15 = 158W

Average: ~120W (assuming 50% active time)
Monthly: 120W × 24h × 30 days = 86.4 kWh
Cost:    86.4 × $0.14 = $12.10/month

Power Monitoring

# Via smart plug (if available)
curl http://<smart-plug>/api/power

# Via UPS
upsc ups@localhost

# Via Grafana
# Dashboard → Power

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Cost Per Service

Estimated Cost Allocation

Service	Resource %	Monthly Cost	Notes
Media (Plex)	40%	$4.84	Transcoding
Storage (NAS)	25%	$3.03	Always on
Infrastructure	20%	$2.42	NPM, Auth
Monitoring	10%	$1.21	Prometheus
Other	5%	$0.60	Misc

Cost Optimization Tips

1. Schedule transcoding - Off-peak hours
2. Spin down drives - When not in use
3. Use SSD cache - Only when needed
4. Sleep services - Use on-demand for dev services

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Storage Costs

Cost Per TB

Storage Type	Cost/TB	Use Case
NAS HDD (WD Red)	$150/TB	Media, backups
SSD	$80/TB	App data, DBs
Cloud (B2)	$6/TB/mo	Offsite backup

Current Usage

Category	Size	Storage Type	Monthly Cost
Media	20TB	NAS HDD	$2.50
Backups	5TB	NAS HDD	$0.63
App Data	500GB	SSD	$0.33
Offsite	2TB	B2	$12.00

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Bandwidth Costs

Internet Usage

Activity	Monthly Data	Notes
Plex streaming	100-500GB	Remote users
Cloud sync	20GB	Backblaze
Matrix federation	10GB	Chat, media
Updates	5GB	Containers, OS

Data Tracking

# Check router data
# Ubiquiti Controller → Statistics

# Check specific host
docker exec <container> cat /proc/net/dev

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ROI Considerations

Services Replacing Paid Alternatives

Service	Paid Alternative	Monthly Savings
Plex	Netflix	$15.50
Vaultwarden	1Password	$3.00
Gitea	GitHub Pro	$4.00
Matrix	Discord	$0
Home Assistant	SmartThings	$10
Seafile	Dropbox	$12

Total Monthly Savings: ~$44.50

Break-even

• Hardware cost: $4,478
• Monthly savings: $44.50
• Break-even: ~100 months (8+ years)

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Tracking Template

Monthly Data

Month	kWh Used	Power Cost	Cloud Cost	Total
Jan 2026	86	$12.04	$15	$27.04
Feb 2026
Mar 2026

Annual Summary

Year	Total Cost	kWh Used	Services Running
2025	$756	5,400	45
2026			65

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Optimization Opportunities

Current Waste

Issue	Potential Savings
Idle NAS at night	$2-3/month
Unused services	$5/month
Inefficient transcoding	$3/month

Recommendations

1. Enable drive sleep schedules
2. Remove unused containers
3. Use hardware transcoding
4. Implement auto-start/stop for dev services

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Links

• Hardware Inventory
• Backup Procedures