Which Australian state has the highest NAS running cost?

South Australia has the highest electricity rates in Australia at approximately 41c/kWh, making NAS running costs roughly 50% higher than in ACT (approximately 22c/kWh). At SA rates, a 6-drive NAS running 24/7 can cost over $100/year in electricity alone. A meaningful number in TCO calculations.

HDD vs SSD NAS Running Cost Calculator: What's the Real Electricity Difference?

This HDD versus SSD NAS running cost calculator compares 5-year electricity costs between spinning hard drives and solid-state drives in your NAS based on drive count, wattage difference, and your Australian electricity rate.

Find out exactly how much more (or less) it costs to run SSDs instead of HDDs in your NAS, in Australian dollars per year, with real model comparisons.

The short answer: SSDs use significantly less power than HDDs. The longer answer: for bulk NAS storage, the electricity savings rarely justify the upfront SSD premium within any reasonable timeframe. This calculator gives you the actual numbers for your specific drives and AU electricity rate.

Defaults to Australian rates. See also: NAS Power Cost Calculator and Cloud vs NAS Calculator.

Your Setup

Number of Drives

HDD Configuration

HDD Model

Idle W

Load W

Spindown W

Price per drive ($)

SSD Configuration

SSD Model

Active W

Idle W

Price per drive ($)

Usage Profile

Not sure? Moderate reflects most home NAS setups.

Electricity Rate (c/kWh)

Select state to pre-fill or enter your own rate. Rates verified March 2026.

Comparison Period

Results

Calculating…

HDD Annual Cost

electricity/year

SSD Annual Cost

electricity/year

Annual Saving

with SSDs

Break-even

years

Total Cost of Ownership

	HDD	SSD
Drive cost	-	-
Electricity	-	-
Total	-	-

HDD annual kWh/drive = (active% × load W + idle% × idle W + spindown% × spindown W) × 8760 hours ÷ 1000.

SSD annual kWh/drive = SSDs don't spin down, so spindown% collapses into idle%. Formula: (active% × active W + (idle% + spindown%) × idle W) × 8760 ÷ 1000.

Annual cost = drives × kWh/drive × (rate c/kWh ÷ 100).

Break-even = upfront premium (SSD − HDD price per drive × drive count) ÷ annual electricity saving.

Worked example: 4x IronWolf 8TB (Moderate profile, NSW 35c) = ~44.7 kWh/drive/year × 4 = ~178.9 kWh → ~$62.6/yr. 4x Samsung 870 EVO 4TB = ~7.97 kWh/drive/year × 4 = ~31.9 kWh → ~$11.2/yr. Annual saving: ~$51.4. Upfront SSD premium: 4 × ($400 − $190) = $840. Break-even: $840 / $51.4 = ~16.3 years.

AU Reference: Annual Running Cost by State

At Moderate usage profile (25% load, 55% idle, 20% spindown), 4 drives. Rates verified March 2026.

State	Rate (c/kWh)	4x IronWolf 8TB (HDD)	4x Samsung 870 EVO 4TB (SSD)	Annual saving
NSW	35c	$62/yr	$11/yr	$51/yr
VIC	30c	$54/yr	$10/yr	$44/yr
QLD	30c	$54/yr	$10/yr	$44/yr
SA	42c	$75/yr	$13/yr	$62/yr
WA	31c	$55/yr	$10/yr	$45/yr
TAS	28c	$50/yr	$9/yr	$41/yr
ACT	30c	$54/yr	$10/yr	$44/yr
NT	29c	$52/yr	$9/yr	$43/yr

Drive Power Reference

Drive	Type	Idle W	Load W	Spindown W
Seagate IronWolf 4TB	HDD	4.5	7.8	0.8
Seagate IronWolf 8TB	HDD	5.0	8.8	0.8
Seagate IronWolf 12TB	HDD	5.5	9.5	0.8
WD Red Plus 4TB	HDD	4.0	7.0	0.7
WD Red Plus 8TB	HDD	4.5	7.9	0.7
WD Red Pro 12TB	HDD	5.8	10.0	0.9
Samsung 870 EVO 1TB	SSD	0.05	3.3	N/A
Samsung 870 EVO 4TB	SSD	0.05	3.5	N/A
Seagate IronWolf 110	SSD	0.7	1.0	N/A
WD Red SA500 2TB	SSD	0.6	1.7	N/A

Source: Manufacturer specifications. Actual consumption varies by workload and temperature. Annual cost = drives × kWh/year × electricity rate. Rates verified March 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Significantly less. A typical NAS HDD draws 5-10 W at load and 4-6 W idle. A NAS-rated SATA SSD draws 1-3.5 W active and as little as 0.05-0.7 W idle. For a 4-drive setup at moderate use, this translates to roughly $30-50/year savings at Australian electricity rates.

Rarely, for bulk storage. The upfront premium for SSDs is typically $200-300 per drive over equivalent HDDs. At average Australian electricity rates, the break-even period is commonly 20-50 years. Far beyond the useful lifespan of either drive. The exception is small 2-bay setups with high-frequency access where other SSD benefits (noise, vibration, random IOPS) also justify the cost.

For bulk storage (large media libraries, backups), HDDs remain the better value choice in almost all scenarios. SSDs shine for NAS use cases requiring fast random IOPS, silent operation, or vibration immunity: VMs, databases, frequently accessed working files. A common best-of-both approach: SSDs for the OS/cache volume and HDDs for bulk storage.

South Australia has the highest electricity rates in Australia at approximately 42c/kWh, making NAS running costs roughly 50% higher than in ACT (approximately 30c/kWh). At SA rates, a 6-drive NAS running 24/7 can cost over $100/year in electricity alone.

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