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How much does it cost to run a 100 W home server 24/7? NAS energy guide

$126 a year is the electricity cost in this 100 W, 24/7 scenario at $0.18/kWh. Compare that amount with a specific cloud service only after including storage, bandwidth, backups, hardware, and maintenance. If the machine averages 30 W instead of 80 W, electricity use and cost fall by 62.5%.

A 100 W home server or NAS running 24/7 at 80% load costs about $126.14 a year to power at $0.18/kWh, $10.51 a month. That works out to roughly 701 kWh annually for a machine that's doing something useful every hour of the year: file serving, Plex, backups, Home Assistant, or a dev box.

By TechCompare · Updated

Annual cost
$126
At $0.18/kWh
Monthly cost
$11
24 h/day at 80% load
Annual consumption
701 kWh
100 W load baseline

Calculator

Daily Cost
$0.35
Monthly Cost
$10.51
Yearly Cost
$126.14
701 kWh / year
This exact 100 W at 24 h/day scenario, pre-loaded. Change the load, price, or add a second device to compare.
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How this is calculated

The big difference from a gaming PC isn't peak power. It's the 24/7 multiplier. An always-on 100 W device burns almost as much annual electricity as an 850 W gaming PC running 4 hours a day (about 701 kWh versus 993 kWh), because 24 × 100 × 0.8 nearly matches 4 × 850 × 0.8. That's why hobbyists obsess over efficient Mini PCs, Synology units, and Raspberry Pi-class servers: the watts matter in a way that doesn't apply to desktops that shut down at night.

Verdict

The arithmetic: 100 W at 80% utilization for 24 hours daily at $0.18/kWh consumes 700.8 kWh annually and costs $126.14 ($10.51 monthly). The 24/7 multiplier is what separates this from a gaming PC: 100 W always-on comes within 30% of the annual electricity an 850 W gaming rig burns in 4 hours a day, because 24 × 100 W × 0.8 nearly matches 4 × 850 W × 0.8. That's why homelab hobbyists compare efficient hardware like Intel N100/N300 Mini PCs, Synology appliances, and Raspberry Pi 5 setups. Synology lists the DS224+ at 14.69 W in access mode and 4.41 W during HDD hibernation, while real drives and workload change the wall draw. Dropping the draw from 80 W to 30 W cuts the bill from about $126.14 to $47.30, a 62.5% reduction. This is an electricity-only estimate. A cloud comparison also needs to account for storage, bandwidth, backups, hardware, and maintenance.

More Server scenarios

500 W gaming PC, 4 h/day
This example uses a hypothetical 500 W wall-load baseline at 80%, giving 400 W average draw during four daily gaming hours.
View details ➜
850 W gaming PC, 4 h/day
This example assumes an 850 W wall-load baseline at 80%, or 680 W average draw, for four hours daily.
View details ➜
1200 W workstation, 8 h/day
This example uses a 1200 W wall-load baseline at 80%, giving 960 W average draw over eight daily hours.
View details ➜

Related guides

RAID 6 with 6x8 TB storage
The storage tier a 100 W home NAS supports.
View guide ➜
60 W low-power server cost
The greener alternative home-server tier.
View guide ➜

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to run a home server or pay for cloud storage?
This scenario estimates about $126 per year for electricity alone. It doesn't establish whether a home server costs less than cloud storage. Compare a specific cloud plan with the server's storage, bandwidth, backups, hardware, and maintenance costs included.
How do hard drives affect home server power draw?
Each active mechanical hard drive adds roughly 5 to 8 watts. Setting your drives to spin down when idle can save significant energy over the year.
What hardware is most energy efficient for a home server?
Compare measured idle and access draw for the complete setup. Synology lists the DS224+ at 14.69 W in access mode and 4.41 W during HDD hibernation, before your exact drive and workload conditions. A Raspberry Pi 5 with a USB SSD can use much less than a desktop, but the storage and power supply still matter. For always-on workloads, efficient idle behavior matters more than peak performance.

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