You cannot since you will never get access to the required data to make such a calculation. All you can do is take the company that provides the services for you at their word.
Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#12It all depends on what the energy mix of the grid supplying the data center looks like. This outfit seems to have a tool that keeps up to date on that:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/cirrus-nexus-laun...
> "The tool takes in data on carbon intensity from local utility grids, and relates that with the reported strategies of cloud providers. It also calculates energy usage based on the manufacturers' data for the servers involved and PUE from the data center operators."
See also:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-08-centers-fueling-climate-...
Getting accurate measurements (i.e. say +/- 10%) looks rather difficult, as regional grids vary their energy sources seasonally and even daily, due to things like wind/solar variability, hydropower output, coal vs. gas input, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#13I recommend you take a look at co2.js. This was just mentioned in the latest issue of branch magazine (https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-4/co2js/) and I haven't played with it myself yet. Code is linked from the article but also https://github.com/thegreenwebfoundation/co2.js/
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#14Very tricky. You need at least:
- the electricity consumption of the system, which varies depending on use
- the electricity consumption of the air conditioning, which is to a first approximation about the same as the fist number (you've got to remove all that energy again, at some efficiency coefficient). Varies by ambient temperature.
- the CO2 mix of the grid at that time, which varies from minute to minute.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#15I built a tool for benchmarking CO2 emissions for Go programs once. It was done as a joke for a meetup once, but is now more relevant than ever.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#16We had a hard time finding this data when experimenting with carbon aware scheduling in Nomad. There seem to be a lot of orgs working on this, but it’s all third party as far as I know. I couldn’t find a first party (eg Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc) that provided this data via an API. Very frustrating.
There are a couple resources linked here: https://github.com/hashicorp/nomad/blob/h-carbon-meta/CARBON...
The silver lining is that the folks who are working in this space are extremely friendly and passionate in my experience. Don’t be scared to “contact sales for an API key.” The few folks I talked to were extremely helpful.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#17Because your server is not emitting CO2, whatever you make up, is just something you made up (best industry practices, conversely, are fictions you choose to believe).
If you really care, put a watt meter on it and try to reduce its power consumption.
Because you don't have control of the data center's grid connections.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#18Does running Data Center workloads on renewable energy is any selling point to some corporations? Or it is a too minor feature? I happen to work at one of those places, but I am thinking it is just a marketing/PR value add-on: https://www.deac.eu/news/information-for-the-media/data-cent...
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#19I doubt you'll ever get an exact measurement from big companies like Amazon. If you can know your exact CO2 emissions for a workload you can pretty accurately model the power consumption of the processor. If you're Amazon and running entirely custom silicon like their Graviton processors then that power consumption info is likely a closely guarded trade secret for now.
Re: Ask HN: How can I calculate CO2 emission of servers/VPS?
#20Does running Data Center workloads on renewable energy is any selling point to some corporations? Or it is a too minor feature? I happen to work at one of those places, but I am thinking it is just a marketing/PR value add-on: https://www.deac.eu/news/information-for-the-media/data-cent...
Not a corporation, but recently I worked with a Swiss company that opted to use Hetzner due to their "green" initiatives, because for them it's relevant to maintain a low carbon footprint, even in the server space.
Call it a PR thing, but it certainly helps in some cases.