https://homelab.surajdhakre.xyz/tags/power/Recent content in Power on Suraj's HomelabHugoen-usSun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://homelab.surajdhakre.xyz/blog/homelab-power-interruption-management/Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://homelab.surajdhakre.xyz/blog/homelab-power-interruption-management/<h2 id="power-cuts-are-a-fact-of-life">Power cuts are a fact of life</h2> <p>If you run a homelab in India, power interruptions aren&rsquo;t a question of <em>if</em> — they&rsquo;re a question of <em>when</em>. Gurgaon gets frequent short outages (a few seconds to a few minutes to a few hours), plus occasional longer cuts during storms or maintenance windows.</p> <p>My goal was simple: <strong>keep the homelab and network running through every outage, no matter how brief.</strong> Servers should never see a power blip. The gaming PC gets its own dedicated protection because it draws too much for the main inverter.</p>https://homelab.surajdhakre.xyz/blog/homelab-power-consumption-cost/Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://homelab.surajdhakre.xyz/blog/homelab-power-consumption-cost/<h2 id="the-question-everyone-asks">The question everyone asks</h2> <p><em>&ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t running all that 24/7 cost a fortune in electricity?&rdquo;</em></p> <p>Short answer: no. The whole homelab costs roughly the same as running a ceiling fan. Here&rsquo;s the actual breakdown.</p> <h2 id="measuring-power-draw">Measuring power draw</h2> <p>I measured each device at the wall using a kill-a-watt style power meter. Here are the idle and typical load numbers:</p> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Device</th> <th>Idle</th> <th>Typical load</th> <th>Max draw</th> <th>Notes</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Raspberry Pi 4B (2GB)</td> <td>~5W</td> <td>~7W</td> <td>~9W</td> <td>Includes SATA SSD via USB + cooling fan</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Old Laptop (8GB)</td> <td>~9W</td> <td>~12W</td> <td>~18W</td> <td>Very efficient — barely sips power</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lenovo ThinkCentre (64GB)</td> <td>~20W</td> <td>~35W</td> <td>~65W</td> <td>Biggest consumer, does the heavy lifting</td> </tr> <tr> <td>TP-Link TL-SG108E Switch</td> <td>~4W</td> <td>~4W</td> <td>~5W</td> <td>Constant draw, no variation</td> </tr> <tr> <td>OpenWrt Router</td> <td>~5W</td> <td>~5W</td> <td>~7W</td> <td>Routing + firewall + DHCP</td> </tr> <tr> <td>WD Blue 4TB HDD</td> <td>~5W</td> <td>~8W</td> <td>~10W</td> <td>Drops to &lt;1W when spun down</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Total</strong></td> <td><strong>~48W</strong></td> <td><strong>~71W</strong></td> <td><strong>~114W</strong></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Most of the time the homelab sits around <strong>48–71W</strong> — the ThinkCentre is the biggest consumer, but its modern CPU is surprisingly efficient at idle. The old laptop is remarkably frugal at just 9–12W.</p>