The cost of Folding.

[BoardBonobo]

With the massive increase in the cost of energy (especially in th UK), it's beginning to bother me about how much electric I use up just for folding. Now I know I could switch everything off and only fold when I'm working, but that seems to defeat the real purpose. AFAIKI stanford would see a considerable drop in output should everyone start to do this.

I can see a time soon when the cost of folding outways the perceived benefit and it will no longer be viable to fold as much. Does anyone else have any veiws on this?

[AlphaWolf]

I never really started folding, I've always been one to power down when my system is not in use. I don't leave a 13watt light on when I'm not using it, I'm not going to leave a computer which uses many times that running.

While folding is a good cause, I think you and research might be better off powering down and writing a cheque with your savings that way you'll at least get a deduction for it.

[Kurt]

Installed BOINC once and had my Q6600 going full bore for a day, checked the wattage and realized it wasn't such a great idea. At 200W/h it would have cost me an additional €300 a year...
One of the main reasons I got a laptop, besides mobility, was to cut down on power consumption for things like surfing and email.

[swaaye]

You can try to undervolt and fold. Can make a big difference in power usage. You'll still be pulling around 100W though with a dual core.

I managed to get a 90nm A64X2 3800+ @ 2.0 GHz down to 0.975v folding. :) Power usage went from ~115W to 67W (idle is about 44W). This thing is on an efficient RS740G mobo with IGP, wireless NIC, TV card and a 80Plus 300W PSU.

My C2D E4300 box that folds 24/7 is at 2800 MHz at stock volts. It's a difficult choice as to whether to run it as high as it will overclock on stock volts or to see how low I can undervolt it at a lower clock rate. It manages double the PPD of the A64X2 3800+. I see about 130W power usage while folding, but this system also has an 8600GT and P965 chipset that gets pretty hot.

[Slyne]

I think Stanford would lose even more if everyone decided to stop folding because of electricity costs.

I don't see the problem with folding only when one's machines are on, F@H is not robbing a computer from its responsiveness (except with a hyperthreaded CPU), and it's not increasing the bill much, given how inefficient power-saving techniques in the CPU still are.