Just highlighting a small irony.
In order to run CPN we need to use power and power is more often than not, generated using fossil fuels.

CPN has in their database, details of processor types and time used predicting. Processor power usage is fairly linear to percentage of processor usage at any time. If they cross referenced this with a table of processor power footprints on a WATT per hour basis, surely they could derive a figure in Mega Watts as to how much it is costing to predict the future climate!

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From the FAQ...

http://www.climateprediction.net/info/part_faq.php#q3.1

That\'s assuming that we are all using CPU\'s designed at the time of writting of that passage. CPU thermal envelopes and power usage has changed in recent years particularly with Intel CPUs.

I just thought it would be possible to compile a detailed breakdown of power usage and even generate a matrix of HADSM Years per WATT per CPU type.

Ultimately you would get analysis on which CPUs are more power efficient and help everyone make the right choice when buying a computer

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It helps a bit if we turn off all the peripherals and the screen when we\'re not using the computer. During the winter months I don\'t feel at all guilty about the heat generated by the computer because it warms the room and I can have the radiator turned permanently off.

In the summer, as you say Tony, the arguments are different.

Am I right in thinking that flat screens, though more expensive to buy, use less electricity to run?

Another thing to bear in mind is the cost in energy, materials and transport to produce the computer and get it to our home. I wouldn\'t be surprised if this cost was as great as the cost of subsequently running it 24/7 for several years. One could argue that the best thing is to use the machine\'s capabilities to the full by working it hard for as many years as possible instead of replacing it when it\'s obsolete but hardly used.

One can also save on the total energy input by replacing the computer and peripherals not at the first opportunity, but at the last. Or by ensuring that someone else gets the use of an older but working machine.

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__________________________________________________

You are funny. There is no way a computer will heat a room!

It helps a bit if we turn off all the peripherals and the screen when we\'re not using the computer. During the winter months I don\'t feel at all guilty about the heat generated by the computer because it warms the room and I can have the radiator turned permanently off.

In the summer, as you say Tony, the arguments are different.

Am I right in thinking that flat screens, though more expensive to buy, use less electricity to run?

Another thing to bear in mind is the cost in energy, materials and transport to produce the computer and get it to our home. I wouldn\'t be surprised if this cost was as great as the cost of subsequently running it 24/7 for several years. One could argue that the best thing is to use the machine\'s capabilities to the full by working it hard for as many years as possible instead of replacing it when it\'s obsolete but hardly used.

One can also save on the total energy input by replacing the computer and peripherals not at the first opportunity, but at the last. Or by ensuring that someone else gets the use of an older but working machine.

[quote]You are funny. There is no way a computer will heat a room! [quote]

Depends how many computers you\'re running...... :)

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First of all. Electricity is not the most efficient way to heat, but if you don\'t have an alternative, than I like the synergy in running computers for CPDN and using the waste heat to heat up the room.

And being mid winter here, I have not had the heating on once (actually I\'m afraid to switch it on, because the power surge, and following voltage drop, might down the running computers)

So, Mo must be right in this, Tim.

Mo, in general flat screen monitors use less power than there predececors, CRT\'s.
Roughly a 15\" LCD will use 20 Watt and a 15\" CRT will use 55 Watt.
One issue with some LCD\'s is however, that while you think you switched off the power, it is actually in stand-bye mode and still uses 2 to 4 Watt.
(btw this power consumption is mentioned in the monitors manual under spec\'s)

In general I have noticed that CPU Manufacturers are going to express concern for the envirronment. Weather this is due to being forced to reduced heat dissipation, advance in technology, or real concern, I better leave in the middle.

Fact is that one has to take the whole enery consuption of the machine, (accually including make and disposal), not only the processor(s).
With bigger power supplies, more demanding hard disks and memory, additional fans for harddisk etc, these newer machines might not be as energy efficient as one is thought to believe.

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First of all. Electricity is not the most efficient way to heat, but if you don\'t have an alternative, than I like the synergy in running computers for CPDN and using the waste heat to heat up the room.

Yes. Even if electricity is not the most efficient form of heating, the combination with useful computing can make it a winner, \"Combined Heat and Crunching\" ;-)

But, if you buy your electricity from a supplier that only uses wind and water power, in fact electric heat could *also* be the most environmentally efficient, even if not the cheapest.

This is what I do. All my BOINCing comes from wind farms, and the cold wind also heats my lounge.

River~~

[quote]You are funny. There is no way a computer will heat a room! [quote]

Depends how many computers you\'re running...... :)

Exactly. These ten computers draw 550 Watts together, when the monitor is switched off. Except in the very coldest weather that is enough to keep my lounge warm. I position them reasonably low down in the room, below desk height, otherwise they end up only heating the top part of the room!

I am thinking of buying a few more, to cover the very coldest weather!

1 x Dell Optiplex desktop, 700MHz deleron
2 x HP Kayak twin 665MHx cpu PIII
3 x Compaq sff 833 MHz
1 x Compaq sff 766 MHz
1 x Compaq sff 600 MHz
2 x Compaq sff 500 MHz

All bought second/third hand, very very cheap.

Obviously 7GHz in one box would draw less power - you\'d be looking for a twin core HT chip running at 3GHz per core, or a twin cpu twin core box with 2GHz chips & no HT. But i could not afford to buy a box like that, and I\'d still have to find a way to heat my lounge ;-)

Together these ten slow boxes provide the same throughput as 7 x 2.8GHz hyperthreaded boxes that keep office hours. In summer most of the slow boxes are turned off as I don\'t need the heat.

River~~

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Wow, ten computers...impressive :o)
It must be cool to heat your lounge but what about the noise ?

And yes, with only One Presscot P4 on 20/7, I can gain 2°C in my room

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Arnaud

Wow, ten computers...impressive :o)
It must be cool to heat your lounge but what about the noise ?

And yes, with only One Presscot P4 on 20/7, I can gain 2°C in my room

How much magnetism in the room!

Wow, ten computers...impressive :o)
It must be cool to heat your lounge but what about the noise ?

quieter than a 2kW fan heater, which is sold as a viable room heater ;-)

R~~

[...ten computers...] How much magnetism in the room!

Magnetism?

I don\'t have any CRT displays, which are the biggest source of magnetism as far as I know. Two TFT\'s. I connect to four boxes via a KVM and I control the others via Putty/SSH or BOINCview.

It is also perfectly possible to drive a BOINC client on a linux box (linux gui or linux command line) from a windows box over a network and using only the standard BOINCmanager program, so if the BOINC-only boxes are set up to load BOINC at bootup you never need to have a monitor, keyboard or mouse attached to them at all. BOINCview gives the advantage of controlling them all from one screen.

R~~

You are funny. There is no way a computer will heat a room!

Pentium D820 with a Nvidia 6800 GT heat a room by 2c from 15c to 17c with 24hr operation. The rest of the rooms are left cold due to the thermostat being in this room <-;

I\'m hoping that the 65nm round of chips will use less energy and give off less heat.

Also at 99 Cubit ft of air per minute (2.8 CM/M) through the Antec 180 case it a good air filter <-;

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Must be a lot of people from the UK here, a computer makes little diference in the Northern US when we have a high of about 0 degrees C in the winter. Oh but it dues help the 2nd Fl. of the house that only gets heat that raises up from below in the Winter.
Ray

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Keep on crunching Pizza@Home

Must be a lot of people from the UK here...

That figures, Ray,

This is the only BOINC project where the science team is based in the UK

...only one so far at least...

Not a large part of my decision making, but it counts for something; and the initial word-of-mouth when CPDN classic started was through two UK Universities and letters to a couple of British newspapers. Personally I came to BOINC from CPDN classic and only later saw the advantage of the inter-project and inter-national cooperation.

But work out how many Watts it takes to heat your house. Divide by 50 (for PIII era machines) to 150 (for HT boxes), buy that many boxes and you too can have a fan heater that calculates how to save the planet while it heats your house
Lowere temperatures in winter are great - you can buy more computers for the Watts you need. ;-)

R~~