Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year’s midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who’s footing the bill to power Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

Electricity costs were a key issue in this week’s elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission.

  • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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    3 days ago

    I really need to get on this. Even just a few panels on the garage to run my NAS and PC off of it nothing else.

    • Iced Raktajino@startrek.website
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      3 days ago

      Yeah, that’s a good place to start. Seeing that it costs almost $50/mo just to run my server/network gear was really eye opening. The stack averages about 290 watts (thank the gods I downsized when I did!) which comes out to:

      (290/1000) * 24 * 30 * 0.23 = $48.02/mo

      Still cheaper than cloud subscriptions, though.

      • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        I’m thankfully only looking at half that with the upgrade I need to do. My family has realized I’m able and willing to backup all family photos, even scan the physical ones, so my 7 TB is going fast.

        I don’t want to think about what my desktop I’m on all day burns. I do graphically intense stuff so gpu running full blast.