Does anyone have any thoughts on how environmentally responsible it is to keep computers on all day just to run ClimatePrediction.net? I would probably use my computer for other tasks about 5 hours per day.
I live in California's Central Valley where it gets quite hot in the summer, and air conditioners already stress the power system. And of course we had the energy crisis a few years ago.

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 fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil, etc.) or nuclear. The increase in power demand caused by ClimatePrediction.net users is probably quite small - almost trivial - compared the total electricity used (and wasted), but it is not zero, so running ClimatePrediction.net presumably has some impact on the environment. Any thoughts on whether it is worth it? What about for other BOINC projects like SETI@Home or Predictor@Home?

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there is a thread in the old forums on just this subject.



My feeling is that crunching for distributed projects is #1 a way to use existing resources for the better good of ALL. And #2 it's a hobby for many people to crunch for these projects. As a hobby that contributes to science it's a better use of resources then using that money for a HOT SKI boat with twin v-8's burning 15 gallons of fuel an hour as far as pollution goes. Look at the alternative uses that people would spend time and money on for a hobby...I think the project isn't bad at all on the environment.



As long as the project is sound and the results of it will be beneficial it's not a waste of resources. I do think though that at some point that old and basically out of date equipment should be retired...no use running a old computer that takes 2 years to complete a WU when a slightly newer computer using about the same energy consumption could get that same WU done in 6 months.

The fact that cdpn BOINC doesn't work on computers running old OS's like 98 and NT means they have a built in cull of older equipment...for the most part.



click the link for info on a good BOINC team.
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Hi, I posted this on the SETI board, with links to our old analysis:

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 &amp; PIV's it's probably closer to 100W (excluding monitors)

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

Personally I don't run my computer all the time just because of ClimatePrediction. The machine is powered on a lot of a time, though, and spends a relatively large portion of it idle, because my use of it is frequent but not constant (not to mention the fact that most desktop use uses only a tiny fraction of the total computing power). Neither did I run the computer continuously when I ran SETI@home.

During the winter I may let the machine run long times, entire days and nights, continuously crunching numbers for ClimatePrediction, though, because I live in a region that's cold in winter and the house needs to be heated anyway. At least this Athlon-brand stove can do something more in addition to producing heat. That's not to say that its contribution towards warming the room is remarkable, but at least that part of the energy spent also does something more or less useful instead of being counter-productive.

I do condone people running their computers all the time working on ClimatePrediction even when the heat production is a negative result, but I don't like to do it myself because I idealistically still think that the idea of distributed computing is to harness the unused power of computers when they're in use.

Charlie Tomberg: Could you 'stack' your signature so it doesn't make us all scroll sideways to read ordinary text please - thanks...

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We could do nothing. This does in the first instance reduce the CO2 output, or not? If we don't support this project, then perhaps another. The question arises which project is more useful. Let's ask. "Do we need to find aliens now, where we have enough problems finding ourselves?" I know this is a pretty general question and its a philosophical problem but in the end it actually comes down to such things.
Now let's say we support this project. Then we actually do something good, because we finally tipped a stone which could be the start of an avalanche and one day we may (the scientists ... whoever it may be) can change the general opinion with presenting the results of this project to the public which, atm, isn't that interested in saving earth, at least the media is more interested in war and stories about the hollywood stars. Also we are a part of it, telling friends/family/m8s of it and with that bytheway information we do a small part of answerin questions to others, nothing worth to be called "big deal" but everything started with something small.

I, for instance, am very interested in a CPU which consums less energy even though it has a high "calculation output". I don't want to advertise here, but the P4 is an energy killer. You won't need a radiator in your flat anymore if it runs 7/24. Same counts for AMD's FX series. But if we check the new Athlon 64 generation of CPU's with Winchester core then i am actually surprised that they manage to optimize a CPU to a 35 W energy output under full load, and thats a desktop cpu!

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&gt; the P4 is an energy killer. You won't need a radiator in your flat anymore if it runs 7/24.

You are absolutely right there... a recently rebuilt system with a P4 3.6GHz processor and a couple of hi-speed SATA drives pumps out so much heat in my study I've been able to turn the radiator off!

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&gt; I live in California's Central Valley where it gets quite hot in the summer,
&gt; and air conditioners already stress the power system. And of course we had the
&gt; energy crisis a few years ago.
&gt;
From my understanding of the matter, the California energy crisis was caused by politics.

Reagan when Governer of California allowed the energy companies to overinvest in nuclear power stations, which never came online and later as President deregulated the energy companies.

Greedy deregulated energy companies withholding reserves, to keep energy prices up to repay their overexposure in nuclear power caused that Energy Crisis, _not_ incompetent Democrats. And now California is stuck with another brain-dead Republican as Governer.

Of course I may be wrong and welcome correction.

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We could look at environmental impact of this project. However I am willing to bet most of us would have our computers running almost around the clock regardless of this project. Most people are running this when there computer goes idle. Unless of course we all turn off our computers immediatly we stop doing our other work. Instead of your pc running and taking up power and doing nothing, i would think its benefical to put it good use. Everything has a impact, you have to choose your battles though.

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In winter the energy used in running the project all day/all night/24-7 isn't wasted because the computer helps to heat the building. In summer, when the heat goes out of the window, some people will choose only to run cpdn when the computer is being used.

One problem about 24/7 running can be forgetting about it. At new year I went away for a week and only remembered after 100 miles of a 360 mile journey that I'd left cpdn on. Knowing that I couldn't drive 560 miles in one day, I just continued and soon stopped worrying. Time to write myself a Leaving the House Checklist.

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