About IdleWatt
IdleWatt is an independent publication about homelab hardware, with a particular obsession with idle power consumption. We exist because almost no homelab content actually measures the thing that determines whether your homelab is a hobby or a quietly expensive mistake: how many watts it draws when nothing is happening.
Why "IdleWatt"?
A homelab runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That's 8,760 hours. Every single watt of idle draw, multiplied by 8,760, multiplied by your electricity rate, is real money you spend whether you use the homelab or not. A modern mini PC at 8W idle costs about $12/year to run. A used Dell R630 at 95W idle costs about $145/year. The hardware decision is the energy decision.
Most homelab content doesn't talk about this. We do. Our tools calculate it, our database catalogs it, and our buying guides recommend hardware that wins the idle-watt race.
About Jonathan Clay
I'm Jonathan Clay, the founder of IdleWatt. I run XGenius Apps LLC, a small portfolio of independent publications focused on practical, measurement-driven content for technical audiences. I've been running homelabs in various forms for over a decade — from a single Raspberry Pi to a Proxmox cluster — and I've made every expensive mistake in the book, including the used enterprise server one.
I'm not a paid reviewer for any hardware brand. I don't accept review samples in exchange for coverage. I do use affiliate links — Amazon Associates and select direct programs — and you can read the full affiliate disclosure for details on how that works.
Editorial principles
Measured beats claimed. Wherever possible, our wattage and noise numbers come from actual measurements with a Kill A Watt P3 P4400 and a calibrated dBA meter. Where we use community or manufacturer numbers, we say so explicitly.
Specificity beats vagueness. We name specific models, specific configurations, and specific prices. Vague advice is worse than no advice.
Honesty about uncertainty. When we don't know something, we say so. When numbers are estimates, we mark them as estimates. When two products are close, we say they're close instead of inventing a winner.
No gear envy. A $300 mini PC is a better recommendation for most readers than a $3,000 rack server, and we'll say so even when it's the less interesting answer.
Contact
For corrections, measurement submissions, or general feedback, the best path is currently through the contact form on our parent company site. We particularly welcome power measurements for hardware not yet in our Idle Power Database — please include your meter model, BIOS version, OS, and drive configuration.
What you won't find here
News. We don't cover product launches as news. By the time you'd read it, every other site would have it too, and it would be obsolete in six months.
Sponsored reviews. If we recommend a product, it's because we think it's the right choice — not because anyone paid us to write about it.
Generic SEO content. We're not trying to rank for "what is a homelab" by writing 4,000 words of definitional fluff. Every article exists because we have something specific to say.