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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: The Powerful Cost of Energy |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 9
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Just take a moment to reflect on this.....e.g. My PC runs 24/7 at 100% CPU time. The PSU takes 200 watts per hour, equating to 1752 kw per annum. A kilowatt where i live costs 19.2 Eurocents **, thats 337 Euro (430 USD) per annum. My Guess is that 90% of CPU time goes to WCG, thats 387 USD annual...... I'm truely clueless as to how much power the PSU uses, if WCG would not be running. I view it as being a dumm converter like one in a TV.....when its on its on and uses 200 watts ph.
----------------------------------------** Does not include the pro-rated fixed fees for being hooked up to the powergrid. On a global scale, Our beloved one which turns up 137 years per day of CPU time. That's @ 365 days * 24 hours * 200 watts / 1000 = 240,000 kw per day or 59 grand per day.....an awesome 21.5 million US **. One can take any angle one likes, but if i'm truely only near this box 10 hours (its where i work from), then 58% of the time is exclusive to WCG. I saw some US publication claiming only 5.84 US per month for the idle time over here Energy Considerations The truth is probably somewhere in between. In another thread someone today said that Grid computing would truly take of once the schools are boarding this as a normal part of life.....Back of envelope, to a company a donation of 100 Office PCs 24/7 would work out to an energy bill of 39 grand per annum. So lets be  on the global energy consumption / warming effect when it does take off.....the upside being that hopefully in the next few years we will see a ROI, thru improvement of life.
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 4 times, last edit by Sekerob at May 23, 2006 11:38:29 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saving energy is a good thing. But there are two important things to remember, when considering the World Community Grid:
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
My computer shack has it's own electricity meter so I did a little test to see what it's costing me.
The test measured the electricity consumption over a 98 hour interval, approximately 4 days. No other appliances were in use during that time. The 3 computers in the shack are: 1) AMD Athlon 64 3300+ 2) P3 Celeron, 1.2MHz 3) P2, 300MHz All computers connect to 1 LCD monitor via a KVM switch. The monitor was in standby mode for the 4 days. All 3 run at 100% CPU usage 24 hrs. per day. Consumption over 4 days was 37 kwh (kilowatt-hours). I pay $0.05597 CDN per kwh so it works out to about $.52 per day or about $183 per year. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable charitable donation to me. I wonder if it's tax deductible?
For those people scared by the figures, just remember that what Dagorath didn't do is subtract the cost of normal computer use (without WCG running). Do this, and the cost will depend on whether you leave your computer on for longer than nomal, in order to rack up those points. Those running crunching farms should expect hefty bills... And a tip: better to run a fast computer for a few hours than a really really slow computer for a few days. You crunch the same amount in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost. So, retire the old and decrepit antiques, and leave your shiny new machine on overnight now and then instead. |
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retsof
Former Community Advisor USA Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Post Count: 6824 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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And a tip: better to run a fast computer for a few hours than a really really slow computer for a few days. You crunch the same amount in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost. So, retire the old and decrepit antiques, and leave your shiny new machine on overnight now and then instead. It is a trade-off. My crunching garden has one slow computer running 4-5 days per WCG workunit (except for some fast current ones) and fast computers running 4-5 WCG workunits per day.The UD interface is designed to give a bunch of points for workunits from slow computers. Fast computers usually benefit from running BOINC, since the points awarded are based on an average of a quorum of results for that workunit. The PSU takes 200 watts per hour, equating to 1752 kw per annum. That's a MAXIMUM, but I don't think most computers are drawing a full load unless they have several add-on cards, hard drives, etc. etc. If there are a bunch of dangling power connectors in there, then nothing is being fed by them.The new generation of CPU chips is only 37 watts, but the components are still part of the equation. Over the long term, power costs should be less for new systems .... unless the costs are increased per KWH.
SUPPORT ADVISOR
----------------------------------------Work+GPU i7 8700 12threads School i7 4770 8threads Default+GPU Ryzen 7 3700X 16threads Ryzen 7 3800X 16 threads Ryzen 9 3900X 24threads Home i7 3540M 4threads50% [Edit 5 times, last edit by retsof at May 28, 2006 12:31:13 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Just take a moment to reflect on this.....e.g. My PC runs 24/7 at 100% CPU time. The PSU takes 200 watts per hour You are confusing power and energy and I believe your calculations are meaningless. Power and energy are related but unique. Watt is a unit of power. Power is energy over time i.e. a rate. Your "watts per hour" translates into "energy over time over time" or "energy / time / time" which is a meaninless concept. The watt-hour is a unit of energy and is a useful concept. It translates into "energy over time for a time" or "energy / time X time" which equals energy. I'm truely clueless as to how much power the PSU uses, if WCG would not be running. I view it as being a dumm converter like one in a TV.....when its on its on and uses 200 watts ph. That may be true for TVs but not computers. The 200 watts is a maximum sustained output power rating i.e. it can supply energy at the maximum rate of 200 watts for sustained periods. When your computer is idling it uses far less than 200 watts. It probably uses less than 200 even at 100% CPU usage. It probably approaches the full 200 for only brief periods, eg. when spinning up the disk during bootup or intense GPU activity. I do appreciate what you are trying to say regarding the environmental costs of all this crunching we do. It's a worthwhile consideration but I think your numbers are wrong. |
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retsof
Former Community Advisor USA Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Post Count: 6824 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I do appreciate what you are trying to say regarding the environmental costs of all this crunching we do. It's a worthwhile consideration but I think your numbers are wrong. I got into this because I can make a DIRECT contribution to a result.I am not giving money to a mailing just so somebody can send me more mailings.
SUPPORT ADVISOR
Work+GPU i7 8700 12threads School i7 4770 8threads Default+GPU Ryzen 7 3700X 16threads Ryzen 7 3800X 16 threads Ryzen 9 3900X 24threads Home i7 3540M 4threads50% |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
For those people scared by the figures, just remember that what Dagorath didn't do is subtract the cost of normal computer use (without WCG running). Do this, and the cost will depend on whether you leave your computer on for longer than nomal, in order to rack up those points. Good point, Didactylos. If your computer is running anyway then the additional cost of running WCG is almost negligible. Remember also that the cost I mentioned in my test is for 3 computers, not 1, running 24 hrs. per day. I expect the cost for 1 computer would be about 1/3 of the $183 or about $60 per year. That's Canadian dollars too, would be even less in US dollars. I bet most homes could easily make up for that cost simply by turning off lights and the TV when they're not needed. |
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Johnny Cool
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 28, 2005 Post Count: 8621 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Sounds like a perfectly reasonable charitable donation to me. I wonder if it's tax deductible?
----------------------------------------Good question! If we are doing something this important, should it not be? I realize that being a "volunteer" is just that. Yet, interesting topic. My take is that it would be not. You choose to do this. You take risks in running your PC (or rig farm). Bottom line is: Yes, Research is called that for a very good reason. It takes time. However, any *little* progress made public would be a great help. Anything. We are all here for Cures at the very best. Better (and safe) meds is obviously very important. ---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by Johnny Cool at May 28, 2006 9:40:30 PM] |
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