[kwlug-disc] [OT] linux server power

[Insurance Squared Inc.]

OK, I slid the linux part in there :).

My wife just brought in an electrician to tell us why our electricity 
costs at home are so high.  He came up with a bunch of different things, 
but one of the potential culprits are the two computers running in the 
basement.  One's an old Dell tower server that runs our Voip phones.  
The other is a web/database/backup server running on an older HP 
workstation.

A quick back of the napkin estimate from the electrician indicated the 
two machines might be costing me 30+ bucks a month in hydro alone.

Step one is I think to replace both machines with something newer and 
more efficient (hopefully without losing speed).

Are there any tricks/suggestions for lowering power costs on hardware, 
and on linux servers specifically? i.e. my voip server needs to be live 
8 to 8, but outside that could probably be dormant except if triggered 
by an incoming call.  A wake on incoming phone call might help.