Sadly, during this extended downtime, I have concluded that I also need an abacus and it would have been better to use one sooner!

I guess many crunchers use computers at work that are permanently on, but I have a single self-built Xeon server at home that is workstation, file server, VPN server, web server, mail server and WCG crunch server all in one. Excepting occasional upgrades and moving home, I turned it off in March when I went away for the first time since I built it in 2014 because the WCG was down so it was idling and would have been just burning electricity for nothing in my absence. I suffered a severe accident whilst away causing complex poly-trauma and am 4 months along a 12-18 months road to recovery, struggling to get my knee to function after reconstruction and haven't needed the server due to being incapacitated.

In this time my energy bills turned negative as I had installed solar panels on my new home, and I am now exporting a lot more electricity than I am consuming. it prompted me to work out the cost of running my server. It turned out to be GBP 550 per year, representing the overwhelming majority of my prior electricity bill. In June my fixed price electricity contract ended and my electricity price rose by almost 300% overnight. I can't justify running my now 8 years old computer continuously any longer as it draws 400W which would cost GBP 1578 per year to do so at the new price of GBP 0.45 per kWh. Sadly, I am retiring from full time crunching a long way short of my personal targets of 100 years on each of SCC and MCM, which are at 59 and 78 years respectively. Its really disappointing but it would cost me around GBP 2400 in electricity to hit those targets and I don't see myself reaching them with just occasional crunching. I can console myself that my home has unexpectedly become carbon negative. Doing my bit to stop climate change is another worthwhile cause!

For the record, at the WCG shutdown my rank was 667 on runtime, 1351 on points, 655 on results. On BOINC Stats rank was 1209 / 98.711% with highest achieved being 1208.

Happy crunching to those who continue.... and please use renewable energy suppliers to power it!

Best wishes, Sandvika

That is way beyond the price cap - change supplier and you’ll get charged 28p/kWh.

Exactly the same happened to my eldest daughter and I arranged for her to change to my supplier. Her charges dropped from £260/month to £62/ month.

You need to set up (Tom Hanks voice) "rebicycling program" for those old Androids out there and set up a few mini racks of those. You can probably power them off stand-alone solar chargers during the day.. ;)

" I address you tonight, not as the leader of WCG, but as a citizen of Humanity. We are faced with the gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day 'Armageddon"; the end of all things. And yet, for the first time in the history of the planet, a project can prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster has been called into service. The human thirst for excellence, knowledge, every step up the ladder of science, every adventurous reach into space, all of our combined modern technologies and imaginations, even the wars we have fought will provide Krembil the tools to wage this terrible battle.

Through all the chaos that is our history... through all of the wrongs and the discord... through all of the pain and suffering... through all of our times there is one thing.- that has nourished our souls.. and elevated our species above its origins... and that is our courage. The dreams of an entire project are focused tonight... on those brave souls toiling into the future. And may we all, citizens of the WCG world over, see these events through. Godspeed and good luck to you."

Abacus. Calculator. For All Mankind.

(Parody of the President's speech to the world in "Armageddon").