IT Professionals

Folding@home And My Pocketbook

Posted by on Nov 23, 2007 | One Comment

Gnomie Aaron Glenn (oboe in the chat room) writes:

Hi Chris,

I’ve been running the Folding@Home software for about three weeks now, and while the altruistic donation of my “spare” CPU cycles towards the advancement of biomedical research seemed very appealing, the effect it had on my power bill is another story…

Suffice it say that it went from $67 last month to $133 this month — just shy of doubling the cost. And this is the time of year when the power bill is normally the lowest…

The only thing that has changed has been Folding@home.

I really hate to say anything bad about the project itself, however, I think people should stop to consider that these are not in fact “spare” CPU cycles as much as they are “additional” CPU cycles — cycles that cost money.

In Folding@home’s defense, I was running the software on my old G4 Cube, which certainly wasn’t the most efficient choice. However, I still think people should be made aware of potential impact the project can have on their wallets.

I certainly feel it on mine…

  • PC Tyson

    Just a note. In order for the electric bill to go up $66 a device would have to use 442 Watts an hour. That is if you live in Hawaii where the cost of electricity is almost double anywhere else. It would require 884 watts in almost every other part of the country to increase the bill this much. The G$ cube power supply puts out only 270 watts. You need to look elsewhere for the cost in electricity. Check to see if the refrigerator compressor is running more often then it should
    Philip