Two ways to keep a recorded-video channel on air around the clock, compared on cost, effort and failure points, with the electricity math shown.
The short answer
If you want to 24/7 live stream pre-recorded videos, you have two practical options: OBS on a computer that stays on at home, or a cloud playout service. Home is cheapest in cash, about $12 a month in power, but it depends on your PC, your power and your internet every hour of the day. Cloud playout, such as StreamHouse at $19 a month for one stream, moves the work to servers you never have to watch.
What every 24/7 setup has to handle
A nonstop channel has to keep six things true for weeks at a time, whichever route you pick:
- A machine that never sleeps. Something has to push your files to the platform every second, through updates, reboots and power cuts.
- A steady upload. A live stream uses your upload connection every minute of every day, so a slow or capped line shows up fast.
- A playlist that loops. Most channels play hours of material, not one file.
- Reconnects. Connections drop, and at the time of writing Twitch ends every broadcast at 48 hours and Facebook ends most live videos at 8 hours. The sender has to reconnect.
- The YouTube archive. YouTube does not save streams longer than 12 hours as a video, so a nonstop stream gets no replay unless something splits it.
- Someone who notices. A stream that dies at 3 a.m. stays dead until a person or a program restarts it.
Rights work the same way on both options: stream only material you own or have licensed, and label reruns honestly.
Option 1: a home computer running OBS
Most channels start here. You add the video as a Media Source in OBS with Loop ticked (or a VLC source holding a playlist), paste the stream key and press Start Streaming. OBS then encodes the picture live on your CPU or GPU the whole time.
Cost math. A desktop drawing about 100 W around the clock uses 100 W × 24 h × 30 days = 72 kWh a month. At $0.17 per kWh that is roughly $12; local rates vary widely. OBS is free software, but the stream’s upload runs on your home line around the clock, which matters if your internet plan has a data cap.
Failure points. Power cuts, router restarts, operating-system updates that reboot the machine, OBS crashes and busy household internet. OBS retries a dropped connection, but after a crash you restart it yourself. A YouTube replay past the 12-hour limit also means stopping and restarting by hand.
If you go this route. Turn off sleep mode and automatic update restarts, connect the computer to the router with a cable instead of Wi-Fi, and keep other heavy uploads off the line. A small UPS can carry the PC and router through a short power cut. Check the stream from your phone at least once a day.
Best for: channels that also run webcam shows, scenes or live overlays, where OBS is the right tool anyway.
Option 2: a cloud playout service
Cloud playout services run the server, the player and the restarts for you. With StreamHouse, one such service, you upload videos to a media library, wait for each to be marked Ready, build a playlist, create a “Prerecorded and/or 24/7” stream with its destinations and press Start. Then the computer can be switched off.
Files are prepared a single time after upload, and that prepared copy is what goes out, with nothing re-processed live.
If a stream falls over, the service tries to bring it back, up to 10 times an hour; if it can’t, say because the key was deleted on the platform, it stops and sends you the reason. For YouTube, a feature called recording protection (connected channels only) splits off the first broadcast at an hour between 1 and 11, short enough for YouTube to archive.
Cost math. Starter is $19 a month, VAT included, for one 1080p stream with no hour cap and 150 GB of storage. Pay-as-you-go credits cost $0.06 per streaming hour at 1080p, so a full month is 720 × $0.06 = $43.20.
What it does not do: webcams, scenes, live overlays, guests, video editing or audio leveling. Edit and level files before upload, and get live access and stream keys from each platform yourself.
Cost, effort and failure points side by side
| Home PC + OBS | Cloud playout (StreamHouse) | |
| Monthly cost, one 1080p stream | About $12 in power | $19 on Starter, or $43.20 on credits |
| Home upload | Around the clock | The files, once |
| Setup effort | Low, plus daily checks | Low |
| Main failure points | Power, ISP, updates, OBS crashes | Platform side: deleted keys, live access switched off |
| Who restarts it | You | Automatic, up to 10 times an hour |
| YouTube replay past 12 hours | Restart by hand | Recording protection, once per run |
| Webcam, scenes, overlays | Yes | No |
Power assumes 100 W at an illustrative $0.17/kWh; rates vary by country. StreamHouse figures are list prices at the time of writing.
Which setup fits your channel
- You also go live on camera. Keep OBS for those shows; cloud playout can carry the recorded hours in between but will not replace your scenes.
- You run one nonstop rain-sounds or sleep channel. Cloud playout costs about $7 a month more than home power, and removes the PC, the round-the-clock home upload and the 3 a.m. restarts.
- You only stream part of the day. Credits win. Eight hours a night for 30 nights is 240 × $0.06 = $14.40. Starter only becomes cheaper above $19 ÷ $0.06 ≈ 317 hours a month, about 10.5 hours a day.
- You run several channels. At home, each extra stream adds more load on the computer and another full stream on your upload. StreamHouse’s Growth plan covers three streams for $39, Pro covers seven for $69, and a custom plan runs from 1 to 20. Paying yearly takes 30% off at the time of writing.
Questions people ask before going 24/7
What happens to a home stream during a power cut or router restart?
The stream goes down with it. When the network comes back, OBS retries the connection, but if the computer itself restarted, nothing streams until you open OBS and start again. A long gap can end the broadcast on the platform, so viewers land on a new one later. A UPS helps with short power cuts but not with an internet outage.
Can I turn my computer off during a cloud stream?
Yes, once the files are uploaded and the stream has started. With a cloud playout service such as StreamHouse, the playlist plays from the provider’s servers, so your PC, router and home power are out of the chain. You only open the dashboard to change the queue or read a failure notice.
Does a 24/7 stream from home slow down my internet?
It can. A live stream uses your upload connection without a break, so video calls, cloud backups and online games in the same house compete with it, and every extra platform you send to from home adds another full stream. With cloud playout, your connection only handles the one-time upload of the video files; after that, the stream runs from the provider’s servers.
Will YouTube keep a replay of a stream that runs for days?
Not automatically. At the time of writing, YouTube does not archive live streams longer than 12 hours, although viewers can still watch live. From a home PC, you end the stream before 12 hours and start a new one. StreamHouse’s recording protection does this once per run on a connected channel; YouTube still decides whether the recording is kept.
Sources
- StreamHouse: home, pricing, features and YouTube pages
- YouTube Help article on archiving live streams
- Twitch Broadcasting Guidelines (help center)
- Meta Help Center: time limits for live video
- Electricity figures: our own arithmetic
All sources checked on October 28, 2026.
