Raspberry Pis for Home Network
Introduction
As I continue to expand on the services I use in my home network, it is starting to become crucial that I use lower power devices to keep my energy bills down. Once you get switches, routers, storage servers, compute servers, IOT devices, etc., it is easy to over-provision your home lab with devices that quietly rack up energy costs. In my case, a device that uses 20w costs $29.80 dollars a year to run. As of my last bill, I was using 225w of power, which cost me \$335.30 a year.
That’s why I started looking into lower power solutions like Raspberry Pis.
Why Raspberry Pi?
One of the most classic low power devices is the Raspberry Pi. Years ago I started out with a Canakit Raspberry Pi 3, which I got as a Christmas gift. These little devices are great for all sorts of projects, but they are also great for saving power and space. Unfortunately, they are not the best when you consider the cost/performance ratio.
I am going to write a blog post on the history of the raspberry PI series, along with some alternative devices that offer better cost and performance. Stay tuned if you’re interested in learning more about the evolution of these popular low power computers and exploring options that might suit your needs even better!
One day I asked myself “How can I save on my energy bill, limited rack space, and limited budget?” I thought back to that Canakit Raspberry Pi 3, and I thought “Could these handle my low-compute services like DNS, Pi-hole, or other lightweight containers?” I decided to look up options for a rackmount for a raspberry PI, and lo and behold, there are some great options out there.
Rackmount Options
There are tons of vendors for y Pi Rackmounts, but one of them really caught my eye. The UCTRONICS 19” 1U Rack Mount for 4x Raspberry Pis was my favorite. Amazon Page. I am a huge fan of expandability and and the UCTRONICS rackmount has that in spades. For example, having a dedicated slot for a SSD, front-access SD card slot, and front-access I/O ports is pretty compelling.
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Powering the Pis
One issue is that typcially a Raspberry Pi is powered via a micro USB port, which is not ideal for a rackmount. A full 1u rack of Pis would tie up four AC outlets and require wires to connect to the micro USB ports. Inefficient and messy in a rackmount setup. Thankfully, some Pis have the options of using GPIO pins to power the device. Through the GPIO pins, you can use a PoE HAT board to power the device. It would be as simple as plugging in the ethernet cable into the OEM ethernet port, which you would have to do anyways. No other cables required.
I decided to use the Official Raspberry Pi PoE HAT. PiShop.us Page. This HAT would be powered via my TP-LINK TL-SG1016PE switch, which can supply up to 30w of power via PoE+ a.k.a. 802.3at. 30w is awesome, because that means I can power:
- The Raspberry Pi 4B itself (Max 9w)
- The Official Raspberry Pi PoE HAT (Max 2.5w)
- The 2.5" SSD (Max 8w)
Total: 19.5w… That leaves plenty of room for other USB devices!
Additional Required Hardware for the Rack Mount
Thankfully the Pi and it’s HAT board fit perfectly into the rack mount. However, there are a few more components that you should probably get! Thank you to CCMax for the VERY helpful Amazon review on the rack mount page.
- UCTRONICS Micro SD Male to Female Flexible Extender Amazon Page.
- M2.5x9mm+6mm Male-Female Brass Hex PCB Motherboard Spacer Standoff Amazon Page.
Note: If using a 2.5" SSD, make sure it is not thicker than 7mm!
Total Cost of Ownership for 4 Raspberry PIs
BOM
| Item | Quantity | Price | Extended Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCTRONICS Micro SD Male to Female Flexible Extender | 1 | $15.99 | $15.99 |
| M2.5x9mm+6mm Male-Female Brass Hex PCB Spacer Standoff | 1 | $6.69 | $6.69 |
| Official Raspberry Pi PoE HAT | 4 | $29.99 | $119.96 |
| UCTRONICS 19" 1U Rack Mount for 4x Raspberry Pis | 1 | $29.99 | $29.99 |
| 128GB Micro SD Card | 4 | $8.99 | $35.96 |
| Raspberry Pi 4B w/ 4GB RAM | 4 | $55.00 | $220.00 |
| Total | $428.59 |
Electricity Cost
Suppose the 4 Raspberry Pis (including HATs, SSDs, etc.) together draw 40W continuously (see Jeff Geerling’s Pi Dramble Power Consumption Benchmarks), and my electricity rate is $0.17 per kWh:
$$ \text{Annual Cost} = \frac{40 \text{ Watts} \times 8,760 \text{ Hours} \times 0.17 \text{ Dollars per kWh}}{1,000} $$So, running the Pis for a year would cost about $59.57 in electricity.
Total Cost
| Category | Total Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | $428.59 | Includes Pis, PoE HATs, rackmount, SD cards, standoffs, extenders |
| Annual Power Use | ~$59.57/year | Assumes ~40W continuous load @ $0.17/kWh |
| 3-Year TCO | $607.30 | Hardware + 3 years of electricity |
Assembling and Installation
Components
Assembly
In the Rack
Final Thoughts
This project helped me learn that power-conscious infrastructure doesn’t have to mean compromising on function. With a modest investment, I was able to add four reliable nodes to my home network, all while saving money on electricity and space.
Some tradeoffs are real. Raspberry Pis won’t replace full-blown x86 servers, but for DNS, monitoring, and other lightweight services, they are a great option.
I’m planning to build on this setup with automation, benchmarking, and maybe even load-balancing workloads across the cluster. Stay tuned for those posts.