I’m building my first house soon and I’m taking all of your videos into consideration when planning my build I’m going to do as much of the building as I can myself. Glad I found your channel keep it up man love the content!
I just left a comment asking for more details on your homelab, and here it is! I would love to see a series from you on the topic, covering the many aspects and using your configuration as an example.
Excellent breakdown. Thank you for your ability to convey this information in layman terms. I am current in the process of trying to relocate my small server rack to our garage along with adding a small AC unit and additional airflow.
I have around 2KW going into my server rack and yes, heat is an issue but not the biggest issue. Dust is the killer, I draw household air to cool the rack and the heat biproduct keeps house nice in winter months and air-con gets this during summer months. I am rebuilding my big rack 2x 45RU side-by-side and water cool the rack to allow sealing the sucker to keep dust out.
Yea, I am fortunate that I am not pulling in house air, and I have a large air cleaner in the room. It goes through filters pretty fast too. Water cooling would be interesting to see!
@@jeffsponaugle6339 Simple sort of setup, water loop/rad inside the rack with positive air flow from fans suck rear hot air through and vent to front of rack for server infeed. Run a nappy tray under it for condensation as the water can/will be from chiller system that sits outside but I can duct the wasted heated air to inside window for winter and let at run normal outdoor for summer. I don't have luxory of room to house in, need to have racks somewhat portable.
Awesome, I would love it if you could show how yout setup looks like instead of just the painting. This would be amazing if you could show it with the power consumption in ur setup with the temperature measurements around the room/inside the server with certein cooling systems powerd on vs off. Anyhow thanks for the Insights, love the video!
Assuming that the air con is running at 1 - 1.5 kW, then that's approx 5 kW average total power use of the room. Using $0.16 / kWh as the electricity rate in Oregon that's $7000 / year in power cost. I don't know what your servers are all doing, but surely there's some low hanging fruit (eg: spinning hard drives down at idle) that could potentially save you thousands of dollars / year.
Damn you guys have 0.16 bucks per wh average? That's actually crazy, I think that's close to our worst peak hour price in some extreme cases, but atleast not average. For example our average today is 0.029 USD But of course I live in the EU not the USA
Yes, and that is partly why I have some servers that turn off and on based on use. The spinning disks are around 6W each, so that certainly makes a difference. Solar also makes a significant difference, as I produce between 15 and 20 MWh/yr.
Good video. I'm currently in the process of designing a new home server room and I've been thinking about this very issue. How much power does a split system use when it's cold outside (e.g. the middle of winter when the outside temp is lower than your set point)? My understanding is that the compressor will ramp down or even turn off altogether. I wouldn't like to think that the AC is pulling 2+ kW year round, but if it only does that during the warm seasons then it's not too bad.
I want to learn more about homelabs servers, networking, etc. Do you have any tips on where to start? I have a server but dont know much about how to use it
Yes, that is what the 'economizer' does - bring in cold outside air.. however if it is really high humidity you might still need some water extraction to prevent condensation. The other factor is that to really cool a room with 5kw of heat you need pretty good airflow, so having a larger path to the outside is a good idea.
@@jeffsponaugle6339 makes sense, even though cold air should be very dry by itself as it cannot store humidity compared to warm. I have a small server that I plan on storing in a cold room in winter and I was afraid if the temperature difference can make condensation inside of the server, since there is zero chance that server will be able to heat that room even slightly.
In the server room, those temps come from an APC IP sensor, and the other indoor/outdoor temps come from an Ultimate2000 weather station, with the data collected by wg on a Raspberry Pi.
Yes, although it would be possible to run the exhaust fan from the server room to the garage without the outside fan running, that would just pull in air (warmer air) from somewhere else. In my case the economizer is running whenever it is 55F or less outside, in which case I would want the extra heat in the lower garage. If it is warmer than that outside I probably don't need the heat. ( I should note the lower garage also has it's own gas 100,000 BTU heater, so this is really just to make use of the extra heat).
I’m building my first house soon and I’m taking all of your videos into consideration when planning my build I’m going to do as much of the building as I can myself. Glad I found your channel keep it up man love the content!
Next episode
How to diversify your portfolio like a CTO 😉
Jokes aside
Thank you for these insights!
I just left a comment asking for more details on your homelab, and here it is! I would love to see a series from you on the topic, covering the many aspects and using your configuration as an example.
The saga continues! Can't wait to hear more.
Indeed
I'm loving these videos.
My new favorite tech channel!
Came here for the homelab vid, staying for that 32 GTR!
Excellent breakdown. Thank you for your ability to convey this information in layman terms. I am current in the process of trying to relocate my small server rack to our garage along with adding a small AC unit and additional airflow.
daily uploads! love it
Awesome video!
Jeff, it looks like the Cheyenne Supercomputer just went up for sale. No peer pressure but you were the first person I thought of 😄
I thought buying it about that for a bit!
I have around 2KW going into my server rack and yes, heat is an issue but not the biggest issue. Dust is the killer, I draw household air to cool the rack and the heat biproduct keeps house nice in winter months and air-con gets this during summer months.
I am rebuilding my big rack 2x 45RU side-by-side and water cool the rack to allow sealing the sucker to keep dust out.
Yea, I am fortunate that I am not pulling in house air, and I have a large air cleaner in the room. It goes through filters pretty fast too.
Water cooling would be interesting to see!
@@jeffsponaugle6339 Simple sort of setup, water loop/rad inside the rack with positive air flow from fans suck rear hot air through and vent to front of rack for server infeed. Run a nappy tray under it for condensation as the water can/will be from chiller system that sits outside but I can duct the wasted heated air to inside window for winter and let at run normal outdoor for summer. I don't have luxory of room to house in, need to have racks somewhat portable.
Awesome! What's next? Networking? ;)
Next topic is power monitoring - only because there were a few questions about that.. but networking is on the list.
Awesome, I would love it if you could show how yout setup looks like instead of just the painting. This would be amazing if you could show it with the power consumption in ur setup with the temperature measurements around the room/inside the server with certein cooling systems powerd on vs off. Anyhow thanks for the Insights, love the video!
Great idea.. I'll show some live data.
Awesome video! What do you use to measure temperature and humidity indoors and outdoors?
Assuming that the air con is running at 1 - 1.5 kW, then that's approx 5 kW average total power use of the room. Using $0.16 / kWh as the electricity rate in Oregon that's $7000 / year in power cost.
I don't know what your servers are all doing, but surely there's some low hanging fruit (eg: spinning hard drives down at idle) that could potentially save you thousands of dollars / year.
Damn you guys have 0.16 bucks per wh average? That's actually crazy, I think that's close to our worst peak hour price in some extreme cases, but atleast not average.
For example our average today is 0.029 USD
But of course I live in the EU not the USA
@@Kire2oo2 Where in the EU do you pay 0.029 USD for 1 kWh?
@@arnivska Norway
Yes, and that is partly why I have some servers that turn off and on based on use. The spinning disks are around 6W each, so that certainly makes a difference. Solar also makes a significant difference, as I produce between 15 and 20 MWh/yr.
@@jeffsponaugle6339 will there be a video on your solar/power setup? :)
So why wouldn’t you be using an evaporative cooling solution? Falling droplets are the most efficient.
Interesting, I never considered the humidity.
Good video. I'm currently in the process of designing a new home server room and I've been thinking about this very issue.
How much power does a split system use when it's cold outside (e.g. the middle of winter when the outside temp is lower than your set point)? My understanding is that the compressor will ramp down or even turn off altogether. I wouldn't like to think that the AC is pulling 2+ kW year round, but if it only does that during the warm seasons then it's not too bad.
Good question - I'll take a look. I have datalogs of the AC power usage every 30 seconds for the last 3 years.
I want to learn more about homelabs servers, networking, etc. Do you have any tips on where to start? I have a server but dont know much about how to use it
About running HVAC in the winter, isn't it better to just circulate air from outside? The only potential problem I can see is condensation?
Yes, that is what the 'economizer' does - bring in cold outside air.. however if it is really high humidity you might still need some water extraction to prevent condensation. The other factor is that to really cool a room with 5kw of heat you need pretty good airflow, so having a larger path to the outside is a good idea.
@@jeffsponaugle6339 makes sense, even though cold air should be very dry by itself as it cannot store humidity compared to warm.
I have a small server that I plan on storing in a cold room in winter and I was afraid if the temperature difference can make condensation inside of the server, since there is zero chance that server will be able to heat that room even slightly.
What kind of temp/humidity sensors do you use? IP? BT? Z-wave?
In the server room, those temps come from an APC IP sensor, and the other indoor/outdoor temps come from an Ultimate2000 weather station, with the data collected by wg on a Raspberry Pi.
Is that a r32 GTR in the background?
Yep. 1991 JDM R32.
@@jeffsponaugle6339 Nice car, amazing homelab and interesting content. Subbed!
Does heat get pushed into the garage only when the economizer is on?
Yes, although it would be possible to run the exhaust fan from the server room to the garage without the outside fan running, that would just pull in air (warmer air) from somewhere else. In my case the economizer is running whenever it is 55F or less outside, in which case I would want the extra heat in the lower garage. If it is warmer than that outside I probably don't need the heat. ( I should note the lower garage also has it's own gas 100,000 BTU heater, so this is really just to make use of the extra heat).
i'd like to see stockfish (chess engine) run on those servers lol
What car? r32?
How would you feel about taking on a mentee? Not even kidding. I live in the same area, work in tech, and am fascinated by your success!