The Cost of 24/7: Tracking Home Lab Power with Shelly
3 days ago
- #home-lab
- #self-hosting
- #energy-monitoring
- Author manages home servers using self-built ComposeFlux tool for GitOps.
- Was asked about electricity costs for 24/7 server operation, prompting investigation.
- Tried software tools like powertop but needed hardware for accurate power measurement.
- Initially used a basic electricity meter, observed power spikes during intensive tasks.
- Switched to Shelly Plug M Gen3 for API access and local data control.
- Created a custom exporter for Prometheus/Grafana to monitor power and calculate costs.
- Exporter uses Shelly's RPC API, supports multiple devices with parallel fetching.
- Dashboard displays real-time power usage, voltage, and accumulating financial cost.
- Proves home lab costs are manageable, emphasizing value of local data and automation.