Random question: reducing peak load?

aquaticvideographer

Hello,

Our local electric utility likes for us to run the dishwasher/clothes dryer/other heavy electrical usage machines late at night in order to reduce the peak load on the system. This got me thinking--are there ways that the SmugMug user base can reduce peak load?

If the same kinds of peak load issues exist for SmugMug as for our electrical utility, could Andy or someone tell us what times of day/week are best for SmugMug customers to upload pictures?

I'm asking because I have a lot of latitude as to when I can upload my pictures--they aren't particularly time-sensitive. I can set them to upload right before I go to bed, for instance. I recognize that this may not be the case for many SmugMug users as there are many pros here who work on tight deadlines. But for the more casual folks, if a significant amount of us were able to reduce the peak load, it might do all kinds of good things for the environment, for SmugMug's bottom line, etc.


Andy, or anyone else who works there, is this worth worrying about?

Andy

Hi! It used to be something that was of concern - Sundays and Mondays were the most busy times. But we've made is so that image processing times are near-instant even on those nights

So, going out on a limb here, I'll say upload away, anytime you like

Baldy

Andy wrote:

But we've made is so that image processing times are near-instant even on those nights

Hahaha, I used to be in the energy business and we built offshore platforms to withstand 140-foot seas offshore Norway.

I used to be amazed that the crew could go into the theater and watch a movie, completely relaxed, with the fury of 100-foot seas outside. Not me. I knew too much about how they're engineered and the sound of massive groaning steel gave me the creeps.

We're engineered to handle many more than the million images we get Sunday evenings. But I could swear I hear servers groaning all the way from my leather easy chair at home...