Cost of running a thin client home server

I’ve been running a thin client as a home server for the past year and a half. I didn’t want to spend money powering a regular PC all day, and the more efficient Raspberry Pi alternative seemed slightly overpriced and slightly underpowered.

Thin clients were recommended as they’re inexpensive, efficient, and sometimes more powerful than similarly priced DIY microprocessors. Plus they include enclosures, full size ports, cooling, and plenty of memory and storage. They’re well stocked on the used market due to their declining popularity in schools.

Ebay photo listing of thin client

Upfront cost

I paid $34.98 for a HP T620 Thin Client with free shipping on Ebay, which includes:

  • 8 GB RAM
  • 128 GB SSD
  • AMD GX-415GA 1.5GHz SOC

For comparison a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8 GB RAM and no storage retails for twice that, with many starter kits on Amazon listing for $100+.

Here’s a benchmark comparison of the thin client SOC against the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B:

CPU Mark Ratings

Electricity cost

I used a Kill A Watt to monitor the energy usage of my thin client across 1,900 hours (~79 days). The server consumed 18.58 kWh during this period, which translates to 0.2347 kWh each day and a rate of 9.78 W. The unit’s power adapter can theoretically draw 65W, but my day-to-day usage of HomeAssistant and light media streaming probably isn’t very demanding.

My last year of electric bills from National Grid charged an overall rate of $0.3455 per kWh.

      # Higher resolution version of above values
kwhPerDay = 0.2346947368
dollarPerKwh = 0.3454981618

The product of these shows that I pay $0.08 in electricity each day to run my home server, or $29.60 per year—a little under the amount I paid upfront for the device.

Potential savings

I don’t have supporting numbers here, but the cost of running my home server is possibly offset by how it helps me save money. Thanks to the community TP-Link Router Integration for Home Assistant, my Ecobee 3 Lite thermostats automatically switch to “Away” mode when I’m out of the house to reduce utility usage. That should already be reflected in my reported electricity costs, but it might also impact my gas bill in the winter.

Overall I’m satisfied with the server costs, considering the daily convenience it affords.