4 ms·

You're looking at < 100 watts of savings in average consumer cases though; that's the equivalent or 1 incandescent light on at home. This won't meaningfully inc

You're looking at < 100 watts of savings in average consumer cases though; that's the equivalent or 1 incandescent light on at home. This won't meaningfully increase air quality or reduce emissions. This is like the Eco mode for iphone charging; or my oven that turns off the time display for power save; these are low watt devices that make the consumer feel as if they are doing something.

hhh 3y ago
60*2000000000 = big number saved.
PaulHoule 3y ago
If there is some distributed processing project that really seems valuable to you, go for it. But if you feel you need to keep your CPU busy just to keep it busy, think again.
fnimick 3y ago
On the scale of phones and ovens sold, this makes a huge difference. Look at the ATX12V standard coming soon for desktop PCs - just a couple percent increased efficiency at idle will save tons and tons of power when applied across entire office buildings, for example.
ndriscoll 3y ago
A 100 W continuous load would represent almost 15% of my electricity usage. An average US household uses ~1215 W averaged across a year[0], so 100 W is ~8%, which I'd say is still pretty significant. A more power hungry CPU like a Ryzen 9 7950X (170 W TDP) would be almost a quarter of my electricity consumption at full power (and if you use more energy for AC than heating, then it'll add additional load to keep your home at the temperature you want). [0] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 (10,632 kWh / year ~= 1215 W average)
- Schinken_ 3y ago
  Oh wow. A bit unrelated but 10 MWh is a lot for me. Even the mentioned 6 MWh for Hawaii. Here in Germany the average (single household) is at around 1.5 MWh. My first instinct would be "of course, US households almost all seem to have AC installed" as opposed to Europeans. But then again, we're cooking with electricity (at least the majority) instead of gas. Is there a good resource for a utility breakdown? I would be interested to see where those high numbers come from.
shortcake27 3y ago
> This won't meaningfully increase air quality or reduce emissions. And using this argument inversely, those 100 watts also cannot meaningfully help others, which is what the OP wants to do. So if you have two options - meaninglessly donate 100 watts or meaninglessly save 100 watts, what’s better? If someone were in need of significant amounts processing power (which is what the OP is hinting at), obtaining it from idle consumer PCs is an incredibly inefficient method of using that power. Think on the lines of CPU mining - a totally useless waste of energy. Whatever this hypothetical person is trying to do, it would be much more efficiently achieved via specialised hardware, and the OP would be better off supporting that than donating their processing power.
scosman 3y ago
If you have any 100w incandescent bulbs running 24x7 please immediately go replace them with LED (for the world and for your energy bill).

hhh 3y ago

60*2000000000 = big number saved.

PaulHoule 3y ago

If there is some distributed processing project that really seems valuable to you, go for it. But if you feel you need to keep your CPU busy just to keep it busy, think again.

fnimick 3y ago

On the scale of phones and ovens sold, this makes a huge difference. Look at the ATX12V standard coming soon for desktop PCs - just a couple percent increased efficiency at idle will save tons and tons of power when applied across entire office buildings, for example.

ndriscoll 3y ago

A 100 W continuous load would represent almost 15% of my electricity usage. An average US household uses ~1215 W averaged across a year[0], so 100 W is ~8%, which I'd say is still pretty significant. A more power hungry CPU like a Ryzen 9 7950X (170 W TDP) would be almost a quarter of my electricity consumption at full power (and if you use more energy for AC than heating, then it'll add additional load to keep your home at the temperature you want). [0] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 (10,632 kWh / year ~= 1215 W average)

Schinken_ 3y ago
Oh wow. A bit unrelated but 10 MWh is a lot for me. Even the mentioned 6 MWh for Hawaii. Here in Germany the average (single household) is at around 1.5 MWh. My first instinct would be "of course, US households almost all seem to have AC installed" as opposed to Europeans. But then again, we're cooking with electricity (at least the majority) instead of gas. Is there a good resource for a utility breakdown? I would be interested to see where those high numbers come from.

shortcake27 3y ago

> This won't meaningfully increase air quality or reduce emissions. And using this argument inversely, those 100 watts also cannot meaningfully help others, which is what the OP wants to do. So if you have two options - meaninglessly donate 100 watts or meaninglessly save 100 watts, what’s better? If someone were in need of significant amounts processing power (which is what the OP is hinting at), obtaining it from idle consumer PCs is an incredibly inefficient method of using that power. Think on the lines of CPU mining - a totally useless waste of energy. Whatever this hypothetical person is trying to do, it would be much more efficiently achieved via specialised hardware, and the OP would be better off supporting that than donating their processing power.

scosman 3y ago

If you have any 100w incandescent bulbs running 24x7 please immediately go replace them with LED (for the world and for your energy bill).