I dont worry about heating any more, my PC's push out all the heat i need to
stay toasty-warm and the CPU water-cooler's give me plenty of hot water too! ;)




Never Knowingley Understood

> > > The climate BOINCers said if the monitor is off a computer
> averages about as much electricity as a 60 watt light bulb.

here's a link to some power figures
http://www.absak.com/design/powercon.html

we used 50W for our 100K computers running CPDN 24/7 will contribute to 0.0001% of global CO2 emissions. our 50W estimate is probably a little outdated (when CPDN first was getting built a few years ago PII/PIII's were common), I imagine in this day of AMD64s & PIV's it's probably closer to 100W (excluding monitors)

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

So to fully answer the question re effect to the environment, we need to complete the work allocated by the CP ppl thus making the question redundant.

If it is a major concern, I think all of us could look around our homes and find better ways to conserve. Some of the more effecient ways is to examine any daily heating and cooling items, as well as lighting, and our insulation. Things that can help and that do much more to conserve resources

- Thermo pane windows (effective in both warm and cool climates)
- Hot water heater jackets (a lot of folks overlook this, but you can reduce your hot water heating costs substantially with one.
- Roof insulation
- Turning lights off when not needed.
- Turning off TV's & stereos when not actively used.
- Using fans for cooling "some of the time" instead of air conditioning.
- Using timed thermostats for heating and cooling that incorporate "set-backs".
- Examine your lighting sources. Use flourescent or other alternatives to tungsten lighting, when practical.

Depending on your climate and lifestyle habits, some are all of these can more then compensate for the energy usage of distributed computing. In the US and most industrial countries, one of the most effective means of energy conservation is modification of life-style habits both in and out of the home. The modification doesn't have to be extreme either, but it does require a little thought.

My total monthly summer energy usage in my apartment with BOINC projects running has been $30-39. (Don't need much air conditioning where I live) In the winter my typical energy usage is $45-55 due to electric heating costs. It doesn't vary much with or without the computers running, because they actually reduce other normal heating costs. I have 7 computers on 24/7. Fastest is a 3.4 ghz P4. The slowest is an iBook 600. Some of them get used for other things as well.




The best Macintosh team ever.

To add to Shaktai's suggestions, a lot of homeowners could save a lot of energy in summer by getting their roofs painted in light colours, thus reflecting away a lot of sunlight that would otherwise cook the occupants. Titanium white is most effective, but far too bright for most people's taste, and titanium dioxide is made by burning titanium, which requires huge amounts of electricity to produce!

Planting tall or fast-growing trees to shade the house also works well. (But avoid using pollen-producing conifers, they cause problems for asthmatics. Get a female plant or an insect-polinated one.)

Solar panels can help keep a house cool if there is a gap between them and the roof.

I live in the UK in a 90 year-old house which needs a LOT of work done to insulate it properly, and I depend on my PCs to help me keep my bedroom warm at night. ;-) Air conditioning? I actually used the AC in my car for a total of 20 minutes this year while stuck in a jam in central London.

I can't recommend highly enough the compact flourescent bulbs that are so widely available now. I haven't actually taken a good look at our power bill lately to see what impact they have had, but the house is much more comfortable with them. Most of our rooms had 2 60 watt bulbs in them, and now have 2 23 watt bulbs which have a light output roughly equivalent to a 100 watt bulb each. So the rooms are brighter, having the light equivalent to 2 100 watt bulbs while using about 1/3 of the power they consumed before. And, the light is much whiter, I find it much more appealing than the yellow light given off by the old incandescent bulbs.

> Thanks to everyone who replied to my post.

Hey charlie, could you please tone down your sig a bit?

It's too long, and causes the stupid gui to expand all the text windows, which makes it hard to read other's posts.

thanks for your condideration.
regards,
Daryl.

> thanks for your condideration.

I meant thanks for your cinderdition
I mean consideration. (damdslexia)
regards,
Daryl.

> > thanks for your condideration.
>
> I meant thanks for your cinderdition
> I mean consideration. (damdslexia)
> regards,
> Daryl.
>

Sorry about that. Is it OK now?

> To get back to my original question, does anyone have any thoughts on how
> environmentally responsible it is to keep computers on all day just to run
> SETI? Whatever the cost to the consumer of the electricity - and in some areas
> that cost is the result of government subsidies or cost increase regulations -
> the electricity has to come from somewhere, and most of the electricity in the
> U.S. comes from burning fossel fuels (coal, natural gas, oil, etc.) or
> nuclear. The increase in power demand caused by SETI users is probably quite
> small - almost trivial - compared the total electricity used (and wasted), but
> it is not zero, so running SETI presumably has some impact on the environment.
> Any thoughts on whether it is worth it? What about for other BOINC projects
> like ClimatePrediction or Predictor@Home?

I use Green Mountain Energy. Here in Texas, the electricity is 100% generated from wind power. Therefore, in my case, there is 0 impact on the environment.


http://www.greenmountain.com





------------------------------------


The game High/Low is played by tossing two nuclear warheads into the air. The one whose bomb explodes higher wins. This game is usually played by people of low intelligence, hence the name High/Low.

An average home PC with a 400 Watts power supply runs for 24 Hours.
Assuming 200 Watts being used ;

[W=Pt] W=Energy in Joules P=Power in Watts t=Time in seconds

W= 200 (24X60X60)
W= 200 X 86400
W= 17,28 MJ (17280000 Joules)

or

24 X 200 = 4,8 KW hours

It is almost impossible to evaluate how many computers are running SETI. S@H currently have about 5 Millions users. Some runs it as screen saver, others runs just a few hous per day others have many computers running 24 Hours, etc
Let say for expample that 20% of them are active and running one PC 24 hours per day dedicated exclusively for SETI. Witch is a very optimistic scenario.
Real number could be much higher, assuming that many crunchers uses dozens of machines.

5000000 X 0,2 = 1000000
1000000 X 4,8 KW = 4,8e+09 (4800000000 Watts hours)
= 4,8 GW

4,8 Gega Watts = 6436905 HP = 64370 average family car running full thruttle
24 hours per day 365 days per year.

A more precise picture of total power consumption used for SETI would be by calculating total WU received by SETI (Classic + Boinc) in one day multiplied by average times it takes to crunch one units.

Marc
-.-. --.- -.. -..- . - --... ...-- .-.-. -.-

> I use Green Mountain Energy. Here in Texas, the electricity is 100%
> generated from wind power. Therefore, in my case, there is 0 impact
> on the environment.

That's an ambitious claim. However, it could be argued that the wind turbines that are generating your power disrupt the flow of air, causing some (unquantified) environmental change downstream of the power farm.

regards,
Daryl.

> Sorry about that. Is it OK now?

Fine, now we have to whether educate everyone else (petit soleil is the next culprit), or get someone to fix the problem at the source (the html source for these pages, that is).


regards,
Daryl.

> Fine, now we have to whether educate everyone else (petit soleil is the next
> culprit), or get someone to fix the problem at the source (the html source for
> these pages, that is).

What did I do ? Somethig wrong with my sig ? Thanks

> What did I do ? Somethig wrong with my sig ? Thanks

Well it appear to me that my sig is not causing any "enlargement" of
the page. It is within the text size and the page was the same before
and after I have posted.

> > I use Green Mountain Energy. Here in Texas, the electricity is 100%
> > generated from wind power. Therefore, in my case, there is 0 impact
> > on the environment.
>
> That's an ambitious claim. However, it could be argued that the wind turbines
> that are generating your power disrupt the flow of air, causing some
> (unquantified) environmental change downstream of the power farm.
>

Please tell me you're not serious.




------------------------------------


The game High/Low is played by tossing two nuclear warheads into the air. The one whose bomb explodes higher wins. This game is usually played by people of low intelligence, hence the name High/Low.

> > That's an ambitious claim. However, it could be argued that the wind
> turbines
> > that are generating your power disrupt the flow of air, causing some
> > (unquantified) environmental change downstream of the power farm.
> >
>
> Please tell me you're not serious.

God...I hope he is not !
Nobody ever worried about planes, cars, moon rockets, etc could create
disrupt in air flow and now we should worry for wind turbine. That is
the cleaner and most effective power source and there is nothing wrong
to say about that.

[snipped, see above]