Earlier quoted context omitted.
That last part is often overlooked. This is also why sometimes it’s just not worth going local especially if you don’t need all that compute power beyond a few days.
100% agree, anything beyond 4x gpu’s is getting into the very annoying to power territory and makes the cloud very attractive. I already can trip a 15A circuit on 115v power with just 3x4090s and a SPR-X cpu. It also costs a lot to power. In the summer, 2x more than you expect, because unless it’s outside, you need cool 1000+ watts of extra heat with your AC. All that together and runpod starts to look very tempting!
Getting that circuit installed was pretty cheap likely because its in an unfinished and unconditioned basement. The basement stays comfortable even during the summer. The heat does seem to work its way into the rest of the house but the additional cooling load is only about 20% more than usual. It lowers the heating cost about the same amount during the winter so it works itself out.