Folding and power consumption

DayUSeX

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

• Jan 4, 2004

• #1

Just wondering, when you FOLD does it take up more power than when you dont. I just borged a 733 machine at the house, which is usually on 24/7 but mostly has aim and opera running. Just wondering if it will consume more power now that the CPU is running full bore.

 

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Fast420A

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Jan 8, 2003

Location

Tampa, FL

• Jan 4, 2004

• #2

Yes it will use more power but you probably won't really notice more than a few dollars on the electric bill.

 

mjmnam

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Joined

Jul 28, 2003

• Jan 4, 2004

• #3

i heard a figure somewhere (there goes the credibility ) that running your computer 24/7 will only cost you like 32 dollars more per year in electric costs. turning the monitor off, if it's a CRT, would probably reduce that considerably. all in all, the difference between turning your box off and leaving it on 24/7 would be negligible.

 

David

Forums Super Moderator

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Joined

Feb 20, 2001

• Jan 4, 2004

• #4

If a rig is folding then it will not go into standby or any other powersaving mode, so it may have an effect there. However, comparing a computer sitting idle 24/7 and a computer folding 24/7 I doubt the power consumption would add anything noticable to your power bill.

 

OSUmaxx

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Jul 8, 2002

Location

Oregon

• Jan 4, 2004

• #5

It will add a little to your power bill, but nothing major at all.

 

Gator

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Joined

Dec 27, 2001

Location

Gainesville, Florida

• Jan 4, 2004

• #6

Uh, the computer will not standby, which will make it use a bit more power... but if you live south of the Mason/Dixon line, the BIG hit is your airconditioning bill... several folding rigs will put out enough heat to fry your ***...

Of course if you live in northern climates, this may be beneficial...

 

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Fast420A

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Jan 8, 2003

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Tampa, FL

• Jan 4, 2004

• #7

Gator said:

but if you live south of the Mason/Dixon line, the BIG hit is your airconditioning bill... several folding rigs will put out enough heat to fry your ***...

Of course if you live in northern climates, this may be beneficial...

Click to expand...

My A/C is down right now at my house until monday, I am almost tempted to shut down the stack until the air is fixed, my coputer room is well over 90F right now.

 

drshivas

Sith Lord

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Joined

Jun 17, 2003

Location

Maryland, USA

• Jan 4, 2004

• #8

Just to add:

A couple months ago, I got a new UPS for my workstation at work. For giggles, I unplugged the fully charged UPS and let the computer drain it while experimenting with turning folding on and off.

Initially, I had 11 minutes of uptime w/o folding. After starting it and letting the core go to 100%, the time dropped to 5min and sank fast.

So yes, your computer draws siginificantly more juice when the CPU is pegged at 100% doing FAH.

 

Cjwinnit

B&

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Joined

Feb 1, 2003

Location

UK

• Jan 6, 2004

• #9

Depends on the computer a lot. Ballpark guess is my P4 2.0 Ghz goes from 160 watt usage to about 220 watt from full idle to folding SSE. (that's including inefficiencies in the PSU, it's an old one)

 

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hooziewhatsit

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Joined

Dec 18, 2000

Location

Klamath Falls Oregon, USA

• Jan 7, 2004

• #10

A while ago, I checked the current being used by my dual XP 1200 system.

It was pulling about 2.2Amps at full load. So that works out to about 260 Watts. Running 24/7, that worked out to cost about $10 a month.

 

Quailane

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Joined

Oct 18, 2003

• Jan 8, 2004

• #11

but if you live south of the Mason/Dixon line, the BIG hit is your airconditioning bill... several folding rigs will put out enough heat to fry your ***...

Click to expand...

I beg to differ. I do live south of the Mason-Dixon line. If there were no trees or houses in the way I bet you I could easilly see it. It is a quick 10 minute walk to the state park where the line passes through. As a matter of fact, I like the addition of extra heating. My basement could give me frostbite if I keep my shoes off for too long. Maybe not, but they get really cold. The computers down there give me good heating when going on my computer or watching tv. I welcome the heat. Seeing as you do live in florida, I can understand your predicament. On the weather channel it shows florida in the 70's and 80's while it is snowing here like happened presidents day weekend last year. I was in vermont at that time skiing and wind chill was -50F!

 

Quailane

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Joined

Oct 18, 2003

• Jan 8, 2004

• #12

Oh, one question. Will lowering the comps voltages decrease amperage while maintaining same Mhz?

 

Chris

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Joined

Sep 30, 2001

Location

England, UK

• Jan 8, 2004

• #13

Whilst answering another question, I was looking on stanfords site and came across the following, it seems a little outdated but you get the idea and it may be helpfull to you.


How much power/money is used by keeping a F@H running 24/7 on a computer?

Roughly, a CPU uses about as much power as a 60 watt light bulb. Here's a report on computer power management from Lawrence Berkeley government labs, and there are other referencs on the web you can find. Although power supplies on most computers are rated at 250 watts, average usage is much lower. On average, a Pentium-type computer uses between 45-70 watts (I've read various different sources on this) while it is on. If the computer has no idle mode, it will use the same amount of energy whether it is running a program or not. If it is on idle, it will consume around 25 watts. So, the daily difference between off and running F@H is about 24x(45 to 70) = 1.1 to 1.7 kWh. At $0.14 per kWh ( from PG&E here in California), this works out to about $0.15 to $0.24 per day, or perhaps $6 a month. The difference between an idled computer and one running F@H would be closer to $4 a month - and if the computer was already being used 8 hours a day, it would be closer to $3 a month.

In general, lighting and climate control use a much larger share of household power than computers do. So the best bet for cutting costs and conserving energy would be to turn off lights, turn off your computer monitors (which use more power than a CPU), and turn down the heat. And keep folding



-Chris

 

axlecrusher

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Joined

Oct 17, 2002

Location

Maryland

• Jan 8, 2004

• #14

A lot of us here do not have average computers. An avergae computer like a Dell, probably dosn't use much more than 70w without the monitor. The monster computers that are probably scattered around the members here use far more power. Dual CPUs, multiple hard drives, water cooling, overclocked, high end video, all suck up much more juce than average computers. My dual 2100 uses over 200w without the monitor. I know this becasue my UPS is rated at 400w and the usage meter reads at least half. I think I estimated around $20-25 a month for 24/7 operation of just the computer.

Sorry if there are mistakes in my post, I'm having a slight issue with my eyes.

Axle

 

PCGUY112887

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Joined

Oct 9, 2003

Location

Illinois

• Jan 9, 2004

• #15

Depends on the computer a lot. Ballpark guess is my P4 2.0 Ghz goes from 160 watt usage to about 220 watt from full idle to folding SSE. (that's including inefficiencies in the PSU, it's an old one)

Click to expand...

I run a P4 2.0ghz, have 2 hard drives, an overclocked video card, and some other stuff and I only have a 175 watt power supply.

Is there any way to tell if your lacking power? I know with everything at ful load my +5v is at +5.1v, but there has to be other ways to see if your short on power.

 

OP

DayUSeX

Member

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Joined

Aug 13, 2003

• Jan 9, 2004

• Thread Starter
• #16

well thnx for the all nfo i guess ill just have to check out the elctric bil land see what happens.