A home server that runs 24/7 is noticeable on the energy bill. But what if it runs on solar energy? Is it possible, what are the costs and is it profitable? In this blog I will take you into this study.
I am new to this world (have seen some videos and read things here and there), so maybe I’ll make mistakes. Do you see points for improvement? I like to hear them 😊

It seems important to me to know what my machine consumes and what the costs are. With this data we can see what would be necessary to provide this machine 24/7 with solar energy.

Estimated consumption:

At the moment I do not have a meter to find out what the actual consumption of my machine is. But with an estimate we close enough for this moment.  For now, I think it’s better to think big, so that no surprises come later.

Product	Number	Watt ps	Watt total
Motherboard + CPU	1	20	20
HDDs	4	10	40
SSDs	2	5	10
Nutrition (estimate)	1	10	10
Fans (estimate)	3	3.3	10
RAM	2	5	10
Total			100

100 watts, more than I initially thought. 50 watts was my first estimate, but based on average usage. That 100 watt is more against the peak power.

The current energy costs

If we start with the above 100 watts, this would cost about € 200 per year on the electricity bill. Usually it is assumed that 1 watt 24/7 use is equal to € 2.00.

Would this still be correct? 100 watts per hour * 24 hours = 2.4 kilowatts * 365 days = 876 kilowatts per year
If you pay € 0.228 per kilowatt, which comes close, this would indeed be correct.

In the following part: what is needed for solar panels and what are the costs?