How Much Power Does Network Attached Storage Use
A Network Attached Storage (NAS) device keeps all your digital files in one place, so you can reach them anytime. But it uses electricity all the time. For Canadian homes and small businesses, knowing its power use helps save money. We will look at the power use of a NAS, what it costs to run in Canada, and give some tips to save energy without slowing it down.
Things That Determine Your NAS Power Consumption
The power your NAS uses is not one number. It changes based on its parts and how you use it. If you know these things, you can choose a good one that saves power.
The Central Processor Unit (CPU)
The CPU is the brain of the NAS, and its type affects power use. Many home NAS devices have low-power processors, like ARM chips or some Intel Celeron models. These chips are good for jobs like file sharing and don't use too much power. But, high-end or Do-It-Yourself (DIY) NAS builds might use stronger desktop processors. These CPUs are faster for hard jobs like changing video formats or running other computer systems. But they also use a lot more electricity, even when doing nothing. A NAS made from an old desktop computer might seem free. But its strong and less efficient CPU could lead to much higher electricity bills over time compared to a NAS built to save power.
The Number and Type of Storage Drives
Storage drives often use the most power in a NAS. Each drive you add adds to the total power use. A normal 3.5-inch Hard Disk Drive (HDD) usually adds 4 to 6 watts of power use when idle, and more when working. A Solid State Drive (SSD) uses much less, often under 1 watt when idle. So, a full 4-bay NAS will use a lot more power than a 2-bay model with the same drives. The power use of the NAS box itself is often just a small part of the total. For example, a certain 4-bay NAS might use 28.8 watts when full with four HDDs. The drives themselves can make up about 14.8 watts of that total. So, the NAS box, CPU, and memory only use about 14 watts. Your choice of drives is very important for your long-term running costs.
The Drive Debate: HDD vs. SSD Power Use
Choosing between HDDs and SSDs for a NAS is not simple. For regular home use, SSDs are usually better at saving power. They use much less power when idle compared to HDDs, using as little as 0.1 to 0.6 watts compared to 4 to 6 watts for an HDD. A home NAS is often idle, so this difference saves a lot of energy over time. But the idea that SSDs are always better is not always true. In some places with many drives and a lot of work, modern large HDDs can actually be more power-efficient for each terabyte of space. Some fast business SSDs can use more power when writing data than business HDDs. The right choice depends on what you do. For a normal home user whose NAS is mostly idle, SSDs are a clear way to save power. For a small business with a lot of data access or big file transfers, it's harder to choose.
Active Workloads vs. Idle States
A NAS uses a lot more power when it is working hard compared to when it is idle. Hard work includes reading or writing files, streaming movies, running backups, or doing system checks. A normal 4-bay NAS might use 30 to 40 watts when idle. But this can go much higher when the drives and CPU are busy. Some larger home servers can go from 84 watts when idle to over 200 watts when at full load. Apps that always use data, like a media server sorting files or many users opening documents, will stop the NAS from going into its low-power idle state and keep power use high.
Other Factors: Cooling and Power Supply Efficiency
Two other parts add to the power draw of a NAS: the cooling system and the power supply unit (PSU). The fans that cool the CPU and hard drives use electricity. If a NAS is in a warm or poorly aired spot, its fans will need to run more often and at higher speeds. This uses more energy. The PSU changes AC power from your wall outlet into DC power for the NAS parts. This change is not perfect, and some energy is lost as heat. PSUs with better efficiency ratings (like 80 PLUS Gold) waste less energy. These units work best at a certain load, often around 50% of their power. They can be bad at saving power at the very low levels where a NAS often runs.
How Much Electricity Does Your NAS Consume?
To find the real cost, we first need to look at the power numbers. We will change the points above into real numbers in watts. Then we will figure out the daily and monthly energy use in kilowatt-hours. That is the unit on your electricity bill.
Typical Power Draw in Watts
The power a NAS uses can be very different. A simple, low-power model might use 20 to 30 watts on average. A more common 4-bay NAS with HDDs will often use around 30 to 40 watts when idle. When it's working hard, the power use can go up a lot. The table below gives some general numbers for different kinds of NAS.
NAS Setup | Idle Power (Watts) | Load Power (Watts) |
2-Bay NAS (with 2x HDDs) | ~20 W | ~35 W |
4-Bay NAS (with 4x HDDs) | ~35 W | ~55 W |
4-Bay NAS (with 4x SSDs) | ~15 W | ~25 W |
DIY NAS (Older Desktop PC) | 50 - 100+ W | 75 - 150+ W |
Calculating Daily and Monthly Energy Use in Kilowatt-hours (kWh)
Your electricity bill shows energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh). You can figure out your NAS's energy use with a simple formula: Power(W)×Time(h)/1000=Energy(kWh).
For a normal NAS that uses 30 watts and runs all day and night, the math is like this:
- Daily Energy Use: 30W×24hours=720Wh=0.72kWh.
- Monthly Energy Use: 0.72kWh/day×30days=21.6kWh.
- Yearly Energy Use: 0.72kWh/day×365days=262.8kWh.
This math helps you guess the energy use of any NAS, if you know its average power draw in watts.
How Much Does It Cost to Run a NAS in Canada?
The power use in watts is only part of the cost. The real cost for you depends on where you live in Canada. Electricity prices are very different in each province. So, knowing your local rates is important to figure out the real cost.
A Look at Canadian Electricity Prices
Canada's average home electricity price is around 19.2 cents per kWh. But this number can be tricky because prices are very different between provinces. For example, Quebec has some of the lowest rates, at about 7.8 cents/kWh. But Alberta has the highest average rate for provinces at 25.8 cents/kWh.
Province/Territory | Average Rate (¢/kWh) |
Quebec | 7.8 |
Manitoba | 10.2 |
British Columbia | 11.4 |
New Brunswick | 13.9 |
Ontario | 14.1 |
Newfoundland & Labrador | 14.8 |
Nova Scotia | 18.3 |
Prince Edward Island | 18.4 |
Yukon | 18.7 |
Saskatchewan | 19.9 |
Alberta | 25.8 |
Nunavut | 35.4 |
Northwest Territories | 41 |
Provincial Spotlights: A Deeper Look at Your Bill
The average rate is not the full story. The type of electricity plan you have is very important for a device like a NAS that is always on. You can lower costs a lot by doing your NAS's hard work when electricity is cheapest.
Ontario: People can often choose between Time-of-Use (TOU), Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO), and Tiered price plans. The ULO plan is very good for NAS users. It has a very low rate, around 2.8 cents/kWh, for electricity used overnight. You can save a lot of money by setting hard jobs like backups to run during these cheap hours.
British Columbia: BC Hydro mainly uses a two-step rate system. You pay a lower price for the first block of energy you use. Then you pay a higher price for anything over that amount. For NAS owners, the goal is to manage total home energy use to keep everything, including the NAS, in the lower-priced first step.
Quebec: Hydro-Québec uses a two-step system called Rate D for most homes. A lower price is for the first 40 kWh of energy used per day. A normal home NAS will almost always use power in this cheap block. This is why running costs are very low in the province.
Alberta: The market in Alberta gives a choice between changing rates and fixed-rate plans. Both plans usually have daily fees. For a device like a NAS that is always on, a fixed-rate plan gives you a stable and known monthly cost. This makes it easier to plan your money.
Annual Cost Scenarios Across Canada
To show how much provincial electricity rates matter, let's figure out the yearly cost to run our example 30-watt NAS. It uses 262.8 kWh per year. We will check the cost in four big Canadian cities.
- Montreal, Quebec (at 7.8¢/kWh): 262.8kWh×$0.078=$20.50 CAD per year.
- Vancouver, British Columbia (at 11.4¢/kWh): 262.8kWh×$0.114=$29.96 CAD per year.
- Toronto, Ontario (at 14.1¢/kWh): 262.8kWh×$0.141=$37.05 CAD per year.
- Calgary, Alberta (at 25.8¢/kWh): 262.8kWh×$0.258=$67.80 CAD per year.
These numbers show that the same device can cost more than three times as much to run in Calgary as it does in Montreal. This shows how important local electricity prices are.
Can a Portable Power Station Run a NAS?
A NAS can be damaged by power outages. This can mess up your data if the device shuts down badly. Many people use a normal Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). But a portable power station can do a similar and often more useful job. It can give power for a short time to keep your NAS running or to let it shut down safely.
Power Station Capacity and Output Explained
When you pick a power station, two things are very important:
- Capacity (Watt-hours, Wh): This is like the unit's 'gas tank.' It tells you how long the station can power your NAS. A bigger Wh number means it runs longer.
- Output (Watts, W): This is like the unit's 'engine power.' The station's power output in watts must be more than the total power your NAS and its drives use at any time
Powering a NAS with an EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro
The EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro is a portable power station with 768 Wh of capacity and 800 W of power output. We can guess how long it could power a NAS with this formula: Runtime(h)=Capacity(Wh)/NASWattage(W).
For a 4-bay NAS idling at 35 watts: 768Wh/35W≈21.9 hours.
For the same NAS under load at 55 watts: 768Wh/55W≈14 hours.
The main reason to use a power station with a NAS is not always to run it for a whole day when the power is out. Its most important job is to protect your data. It helps during short power cuts. For longer outages, it gives enough power for the NAS to shut down safely by itself. This stops you from losing data or damaging your files.
How to Reduce the Power Consumption of NAS
Now that you know the costs, you can take steps to lower them. Saving power on a NAS means picking good hardware and using the right software settings. Here are the best ways to do that.
Hardware Strategies for Lower Power Use
Choose Power-Saving Parts: If you are building a DIY NAS, pick a low-power CPU and motherboard. Do not use a separate graphics card, because it can add 10 to 40 watts of power use even when idle.
Use Fewer, Bigger Drives: Use fewer, larger drives instead of many smaller ones. For example, two 8TB drives usually use less power than four 4TB drives for the same 16TB of storage.
Pick the Right-Sized PSU: For DIY builds, choose a power supply that saves a lot of power (rated 80 PLUS Gold or better). Do not get a PSU that is too powerful for what you need, because they are often not good at saving power when running at very low loads.
Think About a Hybrid Drive Plan: Use a small, power-saving SSD to run the NAS operating system and apps you use a lot. This lets the bigger, more power-hungry HDDs stay in their low-power sleep state for longer.
Software and Settings Adjustments for Efficiency
- Turn On Drive Sleep Mode: This is the best software setting for saving power. Set your NAS to make the hard drives sleep after a set time of not being used, like 20 or 30 minutes.
- Schedule Power On/Off Times: If you do not need access 24/7, use the built-in scheduler to automatically turn the NAS off late at night and turn it back on in the morning.
- Turn off Services You Don't Use: Turn off any programs or services that you do not use. Things running in the background like media sorting, camera software, or file syncing can always use the drives and stop them from sleeping.
- Find a Good Spot for Cooling: Keep your NAS in a cool place with good air flow. This means the cooling fan does not have to run at high speeds, which saves a little bit of power.
- Keep Software Updated: Companies often release software updates that can make things run better and improve power settings.
5 FAQs About NAS Power and How to Cut Costs
People have many common questions about using a NAS every day. Here are clear, simple answers to five of them.
Q1: Is it better to leave a NAS on 24/7 or turn it off?
Leaving a NAS on all the time gives you access to your files right away, which is its main job. Turning it off completely saves the most power and is easier on the parts. A mix of both is often best. Use the built-in scheduler to power the device down during long times you know you won't use it, like overnight. Also, use drive sleep mode to save power during shorter idle times during the day.
Q2: How can I check my NAS's real power use?
The best and easiest way for a home user is a plug-in power meter. These devices, often called Kill-A-Watt, plug into the wall outlet. Then you plug your NAS into the meter. The meter's screen will show you the real-time power use in watts. Some NAS models and many UPS devices also have their own software for checking power use.
Q3:Does a NAS use a lot more power than a normal desktop PC?
It depends on the PC. A NAS made for home use, which usually idles between 15 and 40 watts, saves much more energy than a normal desktop or gaming PC. A PC can easily idle at 50 to 100 watts or more. NAS devices are made just for low-power, 24/7 use. A custom-built server using new, low-power PC parts can save a lot of power. But a re-used older desktop will almost always use more power.
Q4: Does adding more users or running apps like Plex use more power?
Yes, but not directly. The number of active users or apps does not add to the base power use in the same way adding another hard drive does. But more activity from users or apps like Plex stops the NAS from going into its low-power idle state. Every time a file is used or a video is played, the drives have to spin and the CPU has to work. An idle NAS uses much less power than one that is busy sending files to many users.
Q5: How does my RAID setup affect power use?
A RAID setup's main effect on power use is about how many drives it must keep working. When you write a file, a simple single-drive system turns on one drive. A RAID 1 (mirroring) setup must write the same data to two drives at the same time. A RAID 5 setup might need to read from a few drives, do some math, and then write to many drives. This extra disk work keeps more drives spinning, which uses more power than a setup without RAID. Usually, RAID types that need more drives to be working for read and write jobs will cause higher total power use.
Go to Cut NAS Power Costs
A NAS's power use is mostly from its drives. It uses 20-60W. Yearly costs in Canada can be from about $20 in Quebec to over $65 in Alberta. To lower your electricity bill, use good drives, turn on sleep mode, and set shutdown times.