3 ms·
"Although I wouldn’t go so far to say that it is “stealing” (especially if they are like CU Boulder and leave all of their computers running 24/7 anyways)" Now
by Crito 13y ago
"Although I wouldn’t go so far to say that it is “stealing” (especially if they are like CU Boulder and leave all of their computers running 24/7 anyways)"
Now I am not entirely sure about this, but I am pretty certain that this is not how power usage on modern computers works.... An idling machine (what they will typically be doing) will be burning far less power than a computer pegging all of its cores running bitcoin miners.
- ambiate 13y agoCorrect. My computer pulls ~250 watts idling. It can easily go into 750 watts mining with a video card. I would imagine it can pull 320-375 watts at max cpu load.
- vernie 13y ago250W seems like really high idle consumption.
- sliverstorm 13y agoGFX cards don't idle nearly as well as CPU's; I would guess that is the reason. A 350W GFX card may idle around 150-200W.
- maaaats 13y agoAnd here in Norway, where it's cold most of the year so we have indoor heating, the power used from computers is saved from heating.
- rhino369 13y agoNot nearly as efficiently as your regular heater does though. So there is some cost.
- wyager 13y ago>Not nearly as efficiently as your regular heater does though. What do you mean? It's basically 100% efficient. Where else would the energy go? Through the ethernet port?
- praptak 13y ago> It's 100% efficient. Probably above 99.99% but not 100%. The light from the power LED might escape through the window and there's some electromagnetic emissions in the parts of the spectrum that might also go through walls, same goes for the sound of the fan.
- sampo 13y agoThe sound will be absorbed by the walls of the room, turning into heat.
- Crito 13y agoBasically, the computer will be very nearly as efficient as a regular resistive electric space heater, but the building is almost certainly not being heated that way. Heat pumps are far more efficient than resistive heating. http://physics.stackexchange.com/a/1494 http://physics.stackexchange.com/a/1494 (The building may also be on district steam heating, fuel oil, possibly even coal, any of which could be cheaper than electricity, depending on location.)
- joosters 13y agoDepends on what is powering the heating system. In many countries, the price of electricity (per kWh) is much higher than natural gas. So generating heat via a CPU will work out more expensive than via a gas boiler.
- tych0 13y agoPresumably he means efficiency in terms on monetary cost. Producing 1 BTU via electricity is about twice as expensive as producing 1 BTU via natural gas. In places like Norway, they're almost certainly using natural gas, so this is a real cost.
- schmichael 13y agoMy guess is that heating-by-CPU is less cost effective than baseboard electrical heating which is already one of the least cost effective heating methods: http://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-home/home-energy-savings-program/compare-heating-options/ http://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-home/home-energy-savings-p... Also, depending on the setup of your HVAC system, it may be possible to cause a lab to overheat and trigger the cooling system in the middle of winter. Many datacenters vent excess heat year-round. The absolute pittance of bitcoins you'll mine using CPUs won't begin to make up for these inefficiencies. Edit: s/efficient/cost effective/g
- sliverstorm 13y agoBaseboard electrical heating is low on cost effectiveness, but it is very efficient :)
- schmichael 13y agoFixed my wording.
- MartinCron 13y agoI used to keep my home servers in a coat closet and whenever I went to put my coat on, it was already pleasantly warm.