I also had a site running on a server of a few Watts and didn't have trouble with the HN homepage at #1. And it wasn't static files, it needed multiple mysql queries to build each response. And ran apache and php that, yesterday, some people here were surprised is still in use - yup it's fine and plenty fast. Just don't use wordpress or similar without converting it to static pages (e.g. through caching).

I should also look into solar panels. I don't live where I host anymore (living in Germany now, good uplinks at home are usually impossible or at minimum expensive) so it's a bit more complicated but posts like these are inspiring.