Costs per Credit?

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Profile j mercer
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Message 1422155 - Posted: 29 Sep 2013, 23:03:16 UTC

I have wondered what the electrical costs per Credit are these days. The super crunchers must have a low cost per Credit I would think. I have my original cruncher still running and it takes eleven days to crunch a v7 WU. It will not crunch anything else. I’ll measure some of my other crunchers.

I know there is some differences in Credit for the different WUs but I’m hoping we can get a feel for costs in crunching.

It will be surprising how big some folk’s electric bill is from crunching. I have had to cut back for my SETI Farm got too expensive.


CPU/P55 - - watts/120 - - cost/$0.091335US Per kWh - - $0.22US Per Credit - - or $24.40US for the last 111.15 Credit v7 WU


...
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Message 1422157 - Posted: 29 Sep 2013, 23:10:06 UTC
Last modified: 29 Sep 2013, 23:10:58 UTC

I was wondering the other day how much I was spending in power for S@H. I decided against calculating it out because I knew that I would try to talk myself into cutting back.

Electricity cost for me is $0.13790/kWh
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Message 1422165 - Posted: 29 Sep 2013, 23:28:12 UTC - in response to Message 1422155.  

All I can say is that when I received a $320 electric bill that we really couldn't afford, I had to cut back.
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Message 1422198 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 1:39:39 UTC - in response to Message 1422188.  

So using the numbers above and looking at my current credit, I've contributed at least (3,631,134/50) $726.23 to Seti in electricity since 1999.


And that's not even adjusted for inflation! ;-)
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Profile Jeff Buck Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 1422241 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 4:43:45 UTC

An interesting exercise. I run a hodgepodge of 8 machines, 6 of which are currently dedicated to SETI and 2 which are also used for a number of other chores. Because I have an electric rate plan which is divided into Peak and Off Peak hours, with 4 different pricing tiers for each depending on how much I use under and over a "baseline", and which has different Summer and Winter rates, only my 2 multi-use machines (one desktop, one laptop) run 24/7. The other 6 are currently shut down between noon and 6 P.M. on weekdays (since my incremental cost to run those at Summer Peak rates 200+% over baseline would be a whopping USD $0.54/kwh).

I figure I can only really calculate the cost per credit for those 6 dedicated crunchers, as I wouldn't really know how to factor out the other usage for the multi-use machines.

Using my average Summer rate of about $0.27/kwh, here's my best estimate for my cost per 1,000 credits (KCredit) for each machine's production over the past week.

1. Dell Latitude C640: Pentium 4M, 2.00 GHz, 1 processor, no GPU: 1,240 credits @ $1.50/KCredit

2. IBM ThinkCentre M52: Pentium 4 Dual Core, 3.00 GHz, 2 processors, NVIDIA 8600 GT: 9,619 credits @ $0.74/KCredit

3. Dell Optiplex GX620: Pentium D, 3.40 GHz, 2 processors, Radeon HD 5450: 10,072 credits @ $0.60/KCredit

4. HP Compaq dc7700: Core 2 Duo E7500, 2.93 GHz, 2 processors, NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti: 57,732 credits @ $0.13/KCredit

5. HP xw9400: 2x AMD Quad Core Opteron 2389, 2.90 GHz, 8 processors, NVIDIA GTX 660 + NVIDIA GTX 650 + NVIDIA GT640: 185,670 credits @ $0.10/KCredit

6. Dell T7400: 2x Quad Core XEON E5430, 2.66 GHz, 8 processors, 2x NVIDIA GTX 660: 186,147 credits @ $0.09/KCredit

Since these machines are only running about 82% of the available hours each week, I could certainly boost my credits by running them the additional 30 hours, but right now the cost is prohibitive. I'll probably revisit my options when Winter rates kick in come November. (Or maybe it would just be cheaper to move someplace where the electric rates are lower....NOT!)
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Message 1422255 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 5:24:05 UTC
Last modified: 30 Sep 2013, 5:32:00 UTC

Back in '09 I was interested in finding the cost efficiency of my home machines. So I used the power usage & RAC to figure the amount of credit per $1 of electric. It was interesting to see the old Pentium M was nearly as efficient as the newer Core 2.

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6](2 processors)
KWh/Day 3.7440, RAC 1376, $/Day $0.680577, Credit/$1 2021
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz [x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9](2 processors)
KWh/Day 4.0608, RAC 662, $/Day $0.837633, Credit/$1 790
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz [x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7](1 processors)
KWh/Day 2.8800, RAC 323, $/Day $0.523521, Credit/$1 618
Intel Pentium M processor 1.50GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8](1 processors)
KWh/Day 0.8640, RAC 301, $/Day $0.157056, Credit/$1 1917

Just using some guessing I think my i7-860 machines are closer to 11,000 credits per dollar.
Also I just replaced my old Core 2 with an i5-4670K. As it is getting cooler I will need to get it going and get some numbers.
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Message 1422409 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 15:48:03 UTC - in response to Message 1422155.  

...
I have my original cruncher still running and it takes eleven days to crunch a v7 WU.
...
CPU/P55 - - watts/120 - - cost/$0.091335US Per kWh - - $0.22US Per Credit - - or $24.40US for the last 111.15 Credit v7 WU

It seems something slipped in your calculations. A 120 watt device uses slightly less than 3 kwh per day (125 watts would be exactly 3). So for 11 days that would be 3 * 11 * $0.1 = $3.30 approximately.

That's still much less efficient than newer hardware, of course. The real question is whether that 120 watt space heater is helping or hurting your overall energy costs.
                                                                   Joe
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Message 1422427 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 16:17:52 UTC - in response to Message 1422409.  

I just calculated my main machine to be at $1.75 a day crunching.

1.75*365=$638.75 per year.

I'll stop there, to add up the 4 other machines *might* scare me.
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Message 1422500 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 17:25:13 UTC - in response to Message 1422409.  

Thanking you Joe.

Sorry for the confusion math is not my forte. I used a 'Kill-a-Watt' meter to measure the 22.08kwh used for the v7 WU. The power supply peaks at 120 watts but varies during the crunch. Run time was 961,610.78 seconds. Let's try this again. (^;

CPU/P55 - - watts peak/120 - - cost/$0.091335US Per kWh - - $0.018US Per Credit - - or $2.0166US for the last 111.15 Credit v7 WU

I can't afford to run it and some others 24/7 now. I try to do a couple of WUs with each new version/beta BOINC/NVidia.

[Did I get it or did I blow the numbers yet again?] (^8
...
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Message 1422520 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 17:41:14 UTC

In the last 9 days, since a power failure, according to BoincStats, I have been granted 228,755 credits. And the Kill-a-Watt says I have used 52.04kWh in that period to power all the computer based equipment. Therefore not all this power has been used for Seti, but as a gross amount I get 237.3 credits/US cent.
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Message 1422564 - Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 18:22:49 UTC
Last modified: 30 Sep 2013, 18:24:05 UTC

Based on the wattage meter on my UPS (before the batteries died for good a few months ago), my main cruncher consumes about 80 more watts when crunching on 3 of 6 cores than at idle. I crunch 3 APs at a time and they take about 12 hours a piece. Based on my spreadsheet, over the past ~3000 APs, my average credit per AP is 690. So we'll call it 2000 credits per 12 hours. Power rate is roughly $0.145/kwh.

So, 80 watts for 12 hours is 0.96kwh. We'll round it up to 1kw per 12 hours, which gives roughly 2000 credits per kwh. Rounding the cost up to $0.15, that makes it 133 credits per US cent.

I kind of get the feeling some of you may complain about my measurement methods, but here's how I see it: I would have my computer on and running 24/7 anyway without number crunching, and the thread is asking what the cost of crunching is, which is an additional ~80 watts over being idle and doing nothing. My machine is not a dedicated cruncher.. it does everything for me and also does crunching on the side in the background on a small scale.

I have no idea what my single core machine costs to run, but again, I would have that one running 24/7 as well even without crunching. I know that one is going to be much lower for efficiency because it takes 2.5-3 hours to do an MB shorty, and 50 hours to do an AP.
Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)
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Message 1423897 - Posted: 4 Oct 2013, 4:14:24 UTC
Last modified: 4 Oct 2013, 4:16:50 UTC

By the sound of it, some of those concerned about the Cost, the fact that if their Computer/s is/are Running anyway, it won't make any difference to Your Bill. It's only if you have Your Computer/s Running Only To Crunch. Also, it seems that some are Only Concerned The Overall Price, instead of looking at the Actual Cost Per Hour (ie as in Daylight Hours). When this is taken into consideration, and looking at the Cost Per KwH, there's A LOT of Daylight Hours for those KwH's.
Your Lightglobes that are left on and switching them On & Off probably Use More Electricity over the Same Time. My 2 Computers are almost Running 24/7 and The Additional Charges on The Electricity Bill would be Difficult to Notice.

ps .. for those of you who Smoke ... How many Cigarettes per day do you Smoke? ... Just give up 2 or 3 per day and you'll probably be in front.
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Message 1423902 - Posted: 4 Oct 2013, 4:24:54 UTC

I don't know how it's done in the US but here in Holland the electric bill is made up approximately in a fashion that ~60% is taxes and enviromental charges...

I pay 218 Euro's a month of which more than 120 Euro's is the above mentioned... Therefore I won't even begin to cut back on crunching as the left over ~95 Euro's is divided and used by a family of 5.
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Message 1423923 - Posted: 4 Oct 2013, 5:46:41 UTC - in response to Message 1423902.  

I don't know how it's done in the US but here in Holland the electric bill is made up approximately in a fashion that ~60% is taxes and enviromental charges...

I pay 218 Euro's a month of which more than 120 Euro's is the above mentioned... Therefore I won't even begin to cut back on crunching as the left over ~95 Euro's is divided and used by a family of 5.

My power company in New York state is National Grid. I used $63.77 of electricity for the month of September. However when they figure up the taxes and the delivery charge that came to another $67.79 added on to my bill.

So my three I7's dont seem to hog the electricity to bad.
[/quote]

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Message 1426926 - Posted: 11 Oct 2013, 2:48:17 UTC
Last modified: 11 Oct 2013, 3:05:07 UTC

By the sound of it, some of those concerned about the Cost, the fact that if their Computer/s is/are Running anyway, it won't make any difference to Your Bill.

What are you running, something from the last century? It costs me $100 last month to crunch. I don't mind that but I do mind insiders getting all AstroPlus and the real insiders not even distributing the most promising units. After 14 years what have I accomplished? Nothing as I can't compare a unit to a unit.

Then they beg for eighty four cents and not even a thanks for the Franklin.
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Message 1426961 - Posted: 11 Oct 2013, 5:22:04 UTC - in response to Message 1422155.  

78000 credits per day. 0.78kW 24h 0,11 €/kWh i.e 2,06€/day. 0,0026 cnt/credit. All heat is needed for the house 8 months a year.
To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones
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Message 1427006 - Posted: 11 Oct 2013, 8:03:50 UTC - in response to Message 1426961.  
Last modified: 11 Oct 2013, 8:04:52 UTC

78000 credits per day. 0.78kW 24h 0,11 €/kWh i.e 2,06€/day. 0,0026 cnt/credit. All heat is needed for the house 8 months a year.


Lat 64°N. Triple pane windows, air conditioning with heat recovery, air to water heat pump, good insulation, ...
To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones
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Message 1427656 - Posted: 12 Oct 2013, 17:36:18 UTC

Here's my 2 cents (110 credits) worth on this topic...
I have 3.6 kw of solar panels on the roof, feeding an inverter and grid-tied with "net metering" (kwh bought and sold totals and billed, or credited, for the difference). For the most recent 12 months the solar power has supplied all of the household needs and I sold 793 kwh (net) to the utility. So, my small contribution to SETI computation costs me _nothing_ out of pocket. The accountants among you will, rightly, assert that income foregone is the same as an expense incurred; so I'll get on that train and see where it goes.
130 watts consumption on a 24/7 system yields about 600 credits per day (when I am not sharing resources with other BOINC projects). So that works out to 3.12 kwh per day. When I sell power to the utility I get paid at the wholesale rate, which is $0.0364 per kwh for me. Do the math... 11 cents per day or $40 per year or 0.018 cents/credit or 55 credits/cent. Pick your units.
It is evident from other posts on this thread that faster processors, especially with GPU's, are more efficient credit producers. Someday, no doubt, I will go for a more capable CPU and a CUDA-capable GPU to do my day-to-day applications and then my RAC score will jump up. Meanwhile, I just keep plugging away -- for "free."

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Message boards : Number crunching : Costs per Credit?


 
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