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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: I'm back! How much energy is used by the Grid Agent? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 65
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
You knew me as 'electrictroy' at the grid.org forum.
So how much impact does running the Grid Agent have on the environment (and our health)? Somebody at the other forum sat down & did the calculations, and revealed it's equivalent in CO2 and other polluants to driving the average car 10,000 miles (per year). Is it worth it? Is it worthwhile to expend that much energy/pollution for the results obtained? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
P.S. I forgot to mention, since grid.org went down, my computer has been running MUCH cooler. Even the fan stopped running.
Now the only time I run the agent is if my room is cool & I need some extra heat. Otherwise, I don't bother. |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi theaveng aka electrictroy,
----------------------------------------That is an interesting debate, but if all the spare CPU cycles are used (usually 90% plus), your CPU will produce more heat and drives the fan to switch on to cool it back to proper operating temperature. The power difference between almost idle mode and full idle cycle utilization differs per PC, but it's not much. Regrettably many CPU's are still energy/heat inefficient. More modern CPU's convert energy much more into computation and use much less watts. My C2D laptop runs in fact cooler than my P4 desktop, yet processes 3x as much work. Here' a CPU info page in the Help section: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewTopic.do?shortName=cpuuse If you set the WCG(UD) agent or BOINC at their minimum profile / default of 60%, it should not cause much fan noise. When i find the specific Energy page, i'll append it here. cheers PS the little Pencil  left of the topic allows you to add 'PS's :DEdit: spelling fixes  Edit 2: The promised energy article in the help section: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewSe...rchString=How+does+my+use
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 3 times, last edit by Sekerob at May 2, 2007 11:53:41 AM] |
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E. Frijters
Senior Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Post Count: 228 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Former grid.org slave
----------------------------------------  [Edit 1 times, last edit by E. Frijters at May 2, 2007 11:07:44 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
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RKN_frost
Advanced Cruncher Joined: May 28, 2005 Post Count: 73 Status: Offline |
You knew me as 'electrictroy' at the grid.org forum. So how much impact does running the Grid Agent have on the environment (and our health)? Somebody at the other forum sat down & did the calculations, and revealed it's equivalent in CO2 and other polluants to driving the average car 10,000 miles (per year). Is it worth it? Is it worthwhile to expend that much energy/pollution for the results obtained? With comparisons like the above, it is easy to influence folks. But hey, most of the activities one does all day consume electricity - it is just a matter of whether it is usefull or not. I don't have any reason to feel bad about doing grid computing, because it is IMHO one of the best causes to spend energy on. Yes, I could have saved a lot of energy if I had not run dc-projects for years, but I could also have saved a lot of energy, if I watched less TV, had not taken a warm shower this morning etc. In fact, I use energy-saving lights in my room, don't drive much with my car etc. and think, the use of grid computing is one of the most usefull things, energy can be contributed to.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Every light bulb in my house has been the low energy type for many years now, well before all of this fuss about CO2 etc. So I think I will go and turn the heating up and open all the windows.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
If you set the WCG(UD) agent or BOINC at their minimum profile / default of 60%, it should not cause much fan noise. Way to miss the point. The point was I have two choices: - run the agent and CPU at 50% (CPU number 1), thus generating lots of heat & wasted energy - DON'T run the agent, and keep my CPU idling at 5% (while browsing the net), thereby SAVING energy |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
One of the threads I referenced calculates the difference between idle and full load for one cpu. Less than one incandescent bulb. Anyway, most of the energy has already been spent creating your PC. The percentage increase in power budget to actually use your computer for something useful is small. The real cost is in mind share. Most members seem to set it and forget it, and stay away from the forum. Me -- I'm different.
 Lawrence |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
most of the energy has already been spent creating your PC. I don't know about that. A car can be built with the energy-equivalent of 10,000 miles worth of gasoline. I imagine a PC is much, much less.... maybe 1000 miles worth of gasoline (40 gallons per PC). Over its lifetime, both a car and PC will use far more energy than it took to build them. Well, I put the WCG grid agent on "idle" at home. It was generating too much heat. I'll restart it when the cold winter weather arrives. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at May 2, 2007 1:53:29 PM] |
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