[mythtv-users] ANN: PlugMyth, a new MythTV distribution for Plug computers

[Brian J. Murrell]

On Wed, 2010-08-25 at 10:36 -0600, Tyler T wrote: 
> 
> I chose not to consider externialities like tuners because those are
> going to be there regardless of PC or Plug...

Not necessarily.  All of mine are either PCI cards or USB tuners, all
drawing power from the one PC.

> a fixed cost of doing
> business with MythTV,

Per above, not necessarily so.

> We can quibble about numbers, but
> the savings were still significant enough to show up on my power bill.

If all you do is replace a 100W drawing computer with a 10W one and
don't take advantage of what you could do with the 100W computer, I
wouldn't be surprised.

> I don't suggest using two drives; I use a single USB HD for
> everything.

So you have the OS competing with your recordings storage.

> Or a $10 USB stick for the OS (minuscule
> power draw)

Yes, that would be an option indeed.  But where would you store the
database.

> and NAS for recordings.

I guess you could store that on the NAS too.  But again, that adds to
the power consumption that you are not accounting for.  In my case, when
the BE sleeps, so does all of my myth storage.

> FYI the Plug computer draws about 4w by itself when idle and 10w at
> 100% utilization. A 2.5" HD might average 3w.

How much storage is on the 2.5" HDD?

> So, 7w to 13w works out
> to about 10w average for Plug+drive together.

Yeah, it's the other things like tuners that also stay on 24x7 that I
wonder about.

Just to round out the discussion, it would be useful if you had power
draw numbers for your whole kit.

> My power bill says I use 2kW/day less since moving to a Plug (I
> realize this is not scientific but I didn't change any other
> electrical usage habits recently and this is all the data I have).

If you want to get accurate results, get a kilo-watt or similar.  They
can be had for $20 or less.  Really illustrative when you run around
plugging it into things.

> Using the US average of 12¢ per kW/h, that works out to $86/year in
> savings. For me (as mentioned in another thread here earlier) the big
> win was getting rid of the large, hot, noisy tower with a heatsink
> that needed frequent cleaning and fans that needed periodic
> replacement... the power savings was merely a fringe benefit.

Fair enough.  I just wanted to make sure the power savings were being
portrayed accurately and not using peter-robbing-to-pay-paul accounting,
for anyone who is attracted for the power savings benefit.

b.

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