- A weblog by InetSolution
Cool Tool to Measure Server Power Costs
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Mar 6, 2008
Over the past couple of years, the InetSolution crew has become increasingly aware of our impact on the environment. We don't produce much traditional waste, such as paper or industrial byproducts, but we do operate a fleet of high-powered servers that drink electricity like it's free beer at a college party. Since we're adding several new servers to our bank and credit union hosting network next quarter, we've decided to configure our new servers using more energy efficient hardware that deliver more computing power with a smaller energy footprint. We found a nifty tool that helps us measure the exact energy usage of each device on our network and calculate that to actual dollar values based on our actual electricity costs.
The device is called the Kill-a-Watt EZ from P3 International. It looks like a digital light timer that you'd use to turn your lights on and off when you're not at home. Using the unit is quite simple and the only setup you must perform is to enter the rate your electric company charges you per kilowatt hour for your electricity usage. Once that's done, just plug it into an outlet and then plug your server (or refrigerator, stereo or any other equipment whose energy usage you want to measure) into the device and then leave it for a day, week or however long you want.
Set your electricity cost per kilowatt hour
After you've set your electricity usage rate, you'll begin to see results within a few minutes of plugging in your device.
Total elapsed time we measured this device
In the 312 hours that we measured usage of one of our network switches, we used 25.60 kilowatt hours of electricity.
25.60 kilowatt hours used in that 312 hour period
Those 25.60 kilowatt hours cost us $2.99.
Bottom line: $2.99 to operate a network switch for 312 hours
Now not only can we more accurately measure the cost of operating each of the devices on our network, but we can also measure the ROI of purchasing more energy efficient hardware to use in our website hosting operations.
