Re: Power supply efficiency on older model Sun equipment

Robert Chase wrote:
> Paul,
>
> It really depends on what kind of fridge you have and what temperature 
> you have it set on as well.  To assume "all" refrigerators consume the 
> exact same amount of power is also a generalization and also quite 
> faulty as well.  Your also assuming all E450's consume the same amount 
> of power which is even more faulty than the refrigerator argument 
> since depending on the number of power supplies, disk drives and other 
> peripherals can make a pretty big difference in the power 
> consumption.  You also can't really measure the power consumption of 
> any device since you can't measure the amount of heat it generates and 
> how much more energy it consumes for your home A/C system to offset 
> that heat.  As "scientific" as your tests are they are still 
> generalizations and even tests done by an Engineering lab would be 
> "relative" to the exact model refrigerator and exact configuration of 
> computer system.  
> If cost is really your issue why not eliminate the hardware completely 
> and pay monthly for a Virtual Machine?  You eliminate hardware upgrade 
> costs, power costs and administrative costs completely.  You also gain 
> more bandwidth than your home cable modem and more reliability from 
> the redundant power at the Colo that the VM lives at.  Oh not as fun 
> and interesting you say?  My point exactly!
>
> The real measure of efficiency is cost vs benefit.  For some people 
> like myself having real Sun systems in a non production home lab 
> environment allows us to be able to test theory and configuration on 
> non production systems.  The hardware costs and energy costs are an 
> investment in our careers.  A little bit of power to run these systems 
> can pay of hugely in the right situation.
> Robert Chase
i would only argue that i made no assumption that 'all refrigerators 
consume the exact same amount of electricity', along with the other 
assumptions you ascribe to me. i don't disagree with anything above, 
since none of it is what i was saying. my point, only, is to measure, 
not to guess. in *my* case, which may not be your case or anyone else's 
case, my fridge is not a big electricity burner. you had said - point 
blank - "Even a big system like an E450 takes a lot less power than lets 
say an A/C unit or a Fridge or a washer and dryer. ". that's not even a 
generalization, it's a blanket statement - and it's wrong.  again, my 
only point is to measure, not guess.

plus, it's fun to measure, too. ;^)
> Paul Theodoropoulos wrote:
>> Robert Chase wrote:
>>> Hmmm,
>>>
>>> Interesting thread.  Not sure if I see the point though.  I have 
>>> several Sun systems at my house including an Enterprise 450.  The 
>>> problem that I have is not power it's cooling.  With all of my 
>>> systems on I see an increase of perhaps $40 a month on my power bill 
>>> however, my A/C system runs around the clock to keep the house cool 
>>> if I keep all of them on.  On the larger more power hungry systems I 
>>> only power them up when I need them such as the A3500FC fibre array 
>>> and the Enterprise 450.  The smaller systems stay on 24/7.  I keep a 
>>> Netra T1 two IBM x305's an IBM Netfinity 7600 a Foundry Edgeiron 
>>> Switch and a UPS going 24/7.
>>> http://www.systemv.org/site.html
>>>
>>> Even a big system like an E450 takes a lot less power than lets say 
>>> an A/C unit or a Fridge or a washer and dryer.  If your looking for 
>>> a power savings don't look at lightbulbs and computers look at your 
>>> large appliances.  For a small Sun Workstation even an older model 
>>> the power and heat consumption are probably about the same as a 
>>> regular PC.  The difference between a Sun server and a PC server is 
>>> probably too small to measure on most power bills.  What is 
>>> misleading and difficult to measure is heat output which in turn 
>>> ends up costing you money when your A/C unit keeps going 24/7.
>> as the old saying goes, 'all generalizations are faulty...including 
>> *this* one'.
>>
>> using the ever helpful Kill-A-Watt device, i've done plenty of 
>> measurements around my house of how much power various things use. my 
>> refrigerator is not much of a power consumer. over a 24 hour period, 
>> it uses roughly 1.2 kilowatts. or in other words, about 60 watts 
>> continuously. my home PC, a wildly overclocked core 2 duo with high 
>> end graphics card, burns about 140 watts continuously, peaking at 
>> about double that when gaming. the netra T1 out in the garage (also 
>> overclocked, but just a little, and just for the fun of it) burns 85 
>> watts continuously, and the D130 disk array attached to it burns the 
>> same.
>>
>> the max power consumption of an E450 is rated at 1664 watts, though 
>> obviously that with everything and the kitchen sink dropped into the 
>> chassis. still, thats not trivial - it's more per hour than my fridge 
>> uses in an entire day.
>>
>> and, a washer dryer, while they may consume quite a bit while they 
>> run - they generally don't run 24x7, at least not in my house. i even 
>> measured that - between two loads of wash and a dry (natural gas dry 
>> though), they consumed 1kWh for what gets done only every several days.
>>
>> the lesson here i would say is don't guess - measure. the Kill-A-Watt 
>> device is about $20 on newegg. well worth the price. when i 
>> discovered that my bigscreen TV was burning 30 watts continuously 
>> while it was 'off', i put it on a kill switch. there's lots of 
>> 'leakers' all around a typical house. controlling those can save a 
>> lot on your energy bill. my electric bill dropped by about 25% after 
>> i found and killed off all the 'leakers'.
>>
>
>
>

-- 
Paul Theodoropoulos