Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My solar-powered and self-hosted website

dri.es

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#41

Post by nine_k »

Vegenoid wrote: post #16
IncreasePosts wrote: post #10

Solar powered sites are cool and fun, but I find it ultimately lacking because so much of the rest of the networking infrastructure is reliant on the grid. It would be more energy efficient to just host the static site on cloudflare or whatever, and use the solar panel to charge some batteries, or something you would normally use the grid for. I suspect overall energy usage would be even lower if the site was hosted…

Agreed. When I see this type of thing, I am always turned off by people describing it as "greener" or “more sustainable”. Every small website having its own solar panel and hardware is not greener. People frequently think only of the carbon emissions of the energy used by the hardware once it's running, ignoring the carbon (and raw material) cost of building that hardware. Serving websites is an area where capitalism…

If a small website reuses an old low-power computer that would otherwise go to e-waste, it makes things more sustainable. If it's about buying the newest and greatest RPi, it doesn't.

BTW same is true for solar panels. Second-hand solar panels, with remaining efficiency of 70%-90% of the original rating, are really cheap. It's a perfect thing to reuse for a "greener hosting" hobby project.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#42

Post by nine_k »

Vegenoid wrote: post #32
ravetcofx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except all of this could be used hardware and panels. no need to buy new.

"Used" doesn't magically wave away the carbon/resource cost of producing the hardware. Buying used hardware still stimulates demand for the production of new hardware, although to a lesser extent than buying new. Buying used also only works when not that many people are doing it. On an individual level, it is a good thing to do, but it isn't a solution. It does help foster an environment of maintaining and supporting…

It reliability waves away the costs of producing hardware for this particular project.

The second-hand computer and second-hand panels have already been produced for someone else, their cost is sunk. But their value can continue with this project, or end with the hardware and panels going to a dumping ground.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#43

Post by ejddhbrbrrnrn »

genter wrote: post #13
IncreasePosts wrote: post #10

Solar powered sites are cool and fun, but I find it ultimately lacking because so much of the rest of the networking infrastructure is reliant on the grid. It would be more energy efficient to just host the static site on cloudflare or whatever, and use the solar panel to charge some batteries, or something you would normally use the grid for. I suspect overall energy usage would be even lower if the site was hosted…

You don't like that the rest of the infrastructure is on the grid, so you're proposing moving the site to the grid too?

Yes it is not a contradiction here.

Economies of scale make cloud more efficient for basic sites like this. It is like using street lights vs. every house putting out a few candles.

In addition we love the grid! We want it to get greener. Put the effort into making the grid energy zero carbon, low pollution while still highly available.

Furthermore using that solar to say charge your work laptop and then hosting the site in CF would net use less energy.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#44

Post by lightlyused »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #10

Solar powered sites are cool and fun, but I find it ultimately lacking because so much of the rest of the networking infrastructure is reliant on the grid. It would be more energy efficient to just host the static site on cloudflare or whatever, and use the solar panel to charge some batteries, or something you would normally use the grid for. I suspect overall energy usage would be even lower if the site was hosted…

Have you heard of https://meshtastic.org/ ?

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#45

Post by vedmed »

cortesoft wrote: post #39
pluto_modadic wrote: post #35

controversial take: but I think it's fine to host stuff on your own machines, rather than the massive big-data hyperscale datacenters. Yes, google/cloudflare/AWS might be more efficient per watt, but I don't like giving them more money to continue to violate privacy/TOS/labor... (AI, kiwifarms, &, well, everything amazon does). No, it won't be the most efficient, but it's yours.

You wouldn't be giving cloudflare any money to host it with them.

Am I missing the joke here? Clue me in. Cloudflare isn't a host to my understanding. You can't upload files to it and serve them. At least, not on the free tier.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#46

Post by noman-land »

vedmed wrote: post #45
cortesoft wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't be giving cloudflare any money to host it with them.

Am I missing the joke here? Clue me in. Cloudflare isn't a host to my understanding. You can't upload files to it and serve them. At least, not on the free tier.

Yes you can.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#47

Post by ekianjo »

> In contrast, traditional hosting might cost around $20 USD a month

Hosting that is vastly more powerful than a RPI in the first place. And there are much cheaper VPS that costs only a dozen dollars a year, too, and can do a lot more than this rpi. No matter how you look at it this is not saving any money.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#48

Post by FlyingSnake »

vedmed wrote: post #45
cortesoft wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't be giving cloudflare any money to host it with them.

Am I missing the joke here? Clue me in. Cloudflare isn't a host to my understanding. You can't upload files to it and serve them. At least, not on the free tier.

I think the joke was Cloudflare has a generous free tier that covers a lot of ground, sp your bill will be zero. Most hobbyists won’t hit the limit.

Re: My solar-powered and self-hosted website

#50

Post by mttch »

Cool project and I’d really like to try something similar with a 4G/5G connection so it doesn’t rely on site WiFi.

I don’t think your cost comparison is fair between the rpi and hosting. I host my website on a £1/mo shared vps and for my energy costs that equivalent to running a low power server at home, ignoring all the other benefits of it being off-site.

Post reply on HN