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How many and how much are your subscriptions?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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I was tempted to say $0, but then I thought harder about the problem.
Technically I do have ongoing costs
https://usenet-news.net/index1.php?url=home
https://www.nzbgeek.info/
Electricity (whatever tiny amount raspberry pi sips). At a guess, maybe $50/yr.
So, amortised over time - very low but not zero. In theory, if I dropped Usenet, it would even lower. And theoretically, I could run the pi off a single solar panel and a diy solar kit but I'm not busy pretending to be Robinson Crusoe just yet. Though... It might be a cool project.
$50/year electrical bill for a Pi?!
Nevermind, I just did some back of the napkin math and came out around 35 a year if I was running one full power 24/7, so yeah, that is the right ballpark guess for a maximum.
Yeah, same. Though at 3-5W ... it really is just a very rough guess. Lemme ShitGPT it. Oh, I was way off
A realistic Pi 4B-only estimate is about A$8–A$12 per year in electricity, assuming it is on 24/7 and used for Jellyfin streaming around 10–12 hours per week.
Pi 4B measurements are typically around 2.7–2.85 W at idle, about 5.1 W under moderate server load, and around 6.4 W under full CPU stress. Using Perth/WA’s Synergy Home Plan A1 energy charge of 32.3719 c/kWh, excluding the daily supply charge, that works out very cheaply because the device uses only about 25–36 kWh/year.
Scenario Assumed usage Annual energy Approx. annual cost
Mostly idle 3 W 24/7 26.3 kWh A$8.51/year Idle + 12h/wk Jellyfin 2.7 W idle, 5.1 W streaming 25.1 kWh A$8.14/year Heavier Jellyfin/server use 2.7 W idle, 6.4 W streaming 26.0 kWh A$8.40/year Conservative wall-power estimate 4 W idle, 6.4 W streaming 36.5 kWh A$11.83/year
The bigger swing factor is storage, not the Pi. A USB SSD adds very little; a USB-powered 2.5" hard drive might add a few dollars per year; a powered 3.5" external drive left spinning 24/7 could push the total more into the A$15–A$30/year range.
So, for the Raspberry Pi 4B itself as a Jellyfin box: roughly A$10/year is a good mental estimate.
I went off the power supply maximum output. 5.1 volts, 3 amps, so 15 watts per hour. 24hrs per day, 365 days a year, so 131,400 watt-hours, or 131kilowatt-hours. My electricity is about $0.25/kwh (advertised at 0.09/kwh, but when you add on bullshit fees, the final rate is much higher), so I came up with $32.85 as the maximum amount any device connected to that power supply could cost.
Yep. But that would be 100% CPU, 100% of the time? Real life, it's probably closer to 2w idle and maybe 5-7W under typical load.
More interesting...I think that technically means you could make a "UPS" for it using what...4xAA batteries?
Oh man...that would be cool. Stupid but cool.
You might want to consider Premiumize for Usenet (and torrent cache) at that price. Catch it on the Black Friday sale. I think it does NZB as well.
Torrent cache? As in seedbox?
Usenet...boy that brings back some memories from back in the day. Surprised that it seems to still be going strong.
Yarrr! But it really mostly is Yarr these days. So don't go firing up Trumpet winsock to check Forte Agent :)
Things just seemed......simpler back then.
They were, I think. Or we were just younger.
Ahh yeah. Good ol winaock. DLL. Just copy the DLL and magically these programs are connected???
I remember it being a touch more ...analog...back in the day. ATDT commands and all.
But yeah, Win 3.11+ trumpet winsock and Free Agent were the shit. Rec.martial.arts was home back then (along with mIRC).
Lemmy reminds me a bit of the old Usenet fora.
This is why torrents are better! I torrent the highest quality files I can find so I'd blow through that 500gb quickly.
Debatable :) Torrents rely on seeders. I've downloaded movies and TV shows >5 yrs since initial upload via Usenet. Yes, things expire there too (eventually), but when the getting is good, it's uniformly good / fast.
OTOH, 1337 has been pretty decent to me of late.
It's tricky. On one hand, Jellyfin and the arr stack are what got me into self hosting. OTOH...torrents are simpler - I can plug my external SSD directly into my router, which streams to NovaPlayer on any android device - nothing else needed. Want a new show / movie? Grab the torrent, punt it across to ssd via samba share. It auto populates.
https://github.com/nova-video-player/aos-AVP
It's...simpler. Arguably more elegant / less moving parts.
Dunno.
Unlimited Usenet plans are pretty cheap to depending on sales.
Edit to add: I'm not a quality snob, but I'd probably blow through 500GB way too quickly.
Use to last me 2-3 months... but my media library is more or less complete now, with little churn. Also, I don't ever go above 1080p.
I need to check if Radarr / Sonarr works with straight torrents (it must do; I haven't used them for ages / have been using 1337 manually, but I seem to recall torrents being a source).