Network-attached storage (NAS) is designed to run like a server where it’s continuously online. This not only makes it so you can access stored data at any time of the day, but it also allows the NAS to be used for other services, such as media streaming. A major drawback to this operation is the power draw. The NAS will be sucking electricity through the connected power outlet while online. It’s especially worse when you have multiple drives running inside the enclosure. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the power draw of a NAS.
Undervolt the CPU inside a custom NAS
Turn (almost) everything down
If you built a custom NAS, there are some additional ways to limit the amount of power it consumes. Booting into the BIOS would allow you to configure how fast the process runs, how much voltage it can take, and other settings to lower the overall system draw. While you may lose some performance by reducing the speed and power of the CPU, the energy savings can be considerable, and a custom NAS is often times more powerful than required, especially when using desktop-class parts.
Make use of available power plans
Switch and save
Some NAS operating systems may allow power plans to be activated or switched between. These could help save power by reducing the CPU frequencies, allow drives to go to sleep, and other measures to reduce power consumption. Generally, it’s not advised to allow hard drives to sleep as the process of spinning up or down causes additional wear. The NAS can even power down after a set period of time without activity, which can be handy if using wake-on LAN (WOL) and SSDs.
It may also be a good idea to power down the NAS if you will be away from home or the office for some time and it won’t see any usage for a a day or longer. This will make it so you can wake it up over LAN if required, but it can remain offline to save power. I also recommend disabling the device LEDs unless you enjoy the blinking light show. Every little helps!
Use fewer larger capacity drives
Less is more when they’re bigger
The heart of a NAS is the storage drives. It’s what gives the device its name: network-attached storage. Thus, you’ll likely end up with multiple drives running in a RAID with various storage pools. That’s great until you reach a number of five or more. This is where power draw can really start to eat into your running costs. The more drives inside a NAS, the more power the system will draw, even idling. A good way to avoid this is to instead purchase fewer larger capacity drives. Instead of kitting out your NAS with four 10TB drives, purchase two 20TB drives.
With RAID 1, this would provide 20TB of capacity. It’s slightly less than the 30TB with the four 10TB drives in RAID 3, but you’ll be using considerably less power with just two drives. If you’ve already kitted out the NAS with hard drives and don’t wish to perform a direct replacement with the same tech, another option would be to upgrade from HDDs to SSDs. NAS-rated SSDs are more expensive than mechanical drives, but they’re worth it for the improved transfer speeds and lower power draws.
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Keep your NAS up to date
Running the latest updates
NAS hardware and software often get updated with new releases that can help reduce power consumption through bug fixing and optimization. It’s not only paramount to keep the OS and apps updated for data security, but this can also help with lowering your electricity bill. A software bug could cause the CPU or RAM to use more resources than required, which in turn makes the NAS less energy efficient. This can be addressed with an update, so activate all automatic checks.
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