NAS Electricity Cost: Calculate 24/7 Energy Use

An always-on NAS creates a recurring electricity expense. To estimate it, use average power over time or, preferably, representative measured energy, then apply the electricity price relevant to your own bill. The video's 20 W and TRY 5/kWh are illustrative assumptions, not a current tariff or a device benchmark.

Power and energy are different quantities

Watts describe power. A kilowatt-hour describes energy used over time. For constant assumed power, energy in kWh equals watts multiplied by operating hours, divided by 1,000. Keep the unit conversion visible so a small watt figure does not hide a long operating period.

At an assumed average 20 W for 24 hours, daily energy is 20 × 24 ÷ 1,000 = 0.48 kWh. Across 365 days, that becomes 175.2 kWh. The calculation is exact for those assumptions; whether they represent your NAS is a separate question.

Convert annual energy into an example cost

At a hypothetical TRY 5 per kWh, 175.2 × 5 = TRY 876 per year. At an unchanged price and usage over three years, electricity alone totals TRY 2,628. No current Turkish tariff is asserted by either number.

Use the applicable price basis from your own electricity arrangement. Tariff periods, tiers and bill components can matter. Keep the price and calculation date with the estimate so a later reader can update it rather than mistake an old scenario for a current quote.

An adapter rating is not constant consumption

A 60 W label on an adapter does not establish that the device continuously draws 60 W. The NAS workload, drive activity and operating state can change the demand. Manufacturer specifications can list separate operating and disk-hibernation values; those are not automatically your all-day average.

Do not describe the video's assumed 20 W as a measurement of a Synology model. It is an input for a general method. If you use a manufacturer's figure, identify the model and test condition instead of presenting it as a measured household result.

Measure representative energy where practical

Use suitable plug-in energy-measurement equipment according to its instructions and ratings. For this purpose, total kWh over a representative period is more useful than one instantaneous watt reading. Do not modify mains wiring to perform this check.

A first-setup day with indexing can differ from an ordinary day. A day with almost no use can differ from your normal routine too. Record what the system was doing, the start and end of the observation and the energy total.

Average several example days

Suppose three illustrative days use 0.42, 0.48 and 0.54 kWh. Total energy is 1.44 kWh and the daily average is 1.44 ÷ 3 = 0.48 kWh. Multiplying by 365 produces the same 175.2 kWh yearly scenario.

These values are not measurements taken by GKN Labs. Their purpose is to show why dividing total energy by the number of observed days is more meaningful than choosing a favourable instant. Longer records still need to represent how you actually use the device.

Put electricity in the whole storage budget

For a NAS-versus-cloud decision, include enclosure, drives, energy and a separate backup. Compare equivalent usable capacity and recovery needs. Electricity is one line in that budget; it does not alone prove that buying or avoiding a NAS is the right decision.

See NAS versus cloud over three years for the complete cost method and RAID versus backup for why two drives do not remove every data-loss risk. If cloud transfer time matters, use the 1 TB upload calculation alongside the spending estimate.

Questions before using the result

Is the energy figure measured or assumed? Does the period represent normal use? Is the price current for your own arrangement? Are the hours and days correct? Does the three-year comparison hold price constant? Answering these questions makes the estimate updateable and prevents an illustrative number becoming a false product claim.

Sources and scope

Companion video schedule

This article is available now. The Turkish main video and two Shorts are scheduled; the links may not be watchable before their release times. All times below are Turkey time (UTC+03:00).

Main video — 2026-11-05 20:00 (UTC+03:00).
Short 1 — 2026-11-07 20:00 (UTC+03:00).
Short 2 — 2026-11-10 20:00 (UTC+03:00).

Edited by GKN Labs. Editorial update: 4 November 2026. Cover and explanatory visuals are illustrative, not evidence of product testing or measurement.