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Number crunching :
Your SETI farm power consumption?
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AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
Sorry about all the new threads. Just wanting a sanity check and to make sure I'm not about to go too overkill with my SETI machines! Do any of you with multiple machines keep your eye on your energy bills? How much do you spend on Electricity? How much is a KWh of power in your part of the world? I purchased a power check adaptor which plugs between the outlet socket and the cable to the SETI machines. It records how much power is used and multiplies this by the price per Kwh (in my case 13Pence per Kwh). It looks like this: The first line is the amount of pwer currently being consumed (there are only 2 machines on this at the moment) The second line is the accumulated cost (in £s) The third line is the amount of time that the cost refers to (so in just under 2 days my machines have cost 88pence to run) I know some of you have HUGE rigs set up, so is power cheap in your part of the world or have your electricity bills gone mad? |
Alinator Send message Joined: 19 Apr 05 Posts: 4178 Credit: 4,647,982 RAC: 0 |
Sorry about all the new threads. Just wanting a sanity check and to make sure I'm not about to go too overkill with my SETI machines! LOL... I treat farm crunching like owning exotic sports cars. If you're concerned about the cost to play the game, then you shouldn't be there in the first place. ;-) That being said, keeping track of what's going on is never a bad idea. :-) <edit> As far as cost goes, for most locations here in the US electric rates are still relatively cheap compared to the rest of the world. I haven't made a ballpark estimate for my gear in while, but it's probably something like 20 dollars a month, but they'd be on anyway so I don't worry about it. Alinator |
SATAN Send message Joined: 27 Aug 06 Posts: 835 Credit: 2,129,006 RAC: 0 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per Kwh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. Altough were on a key metre so we have the daily charge on top, which works out at 13.5p per day. so i'm paying about the same as you. Dread to think what our cost in the UK would be if we had 10 or so machines running. MS any guess' on your power bill! |
AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
I never said I was concerned about the cost, just keeping track as you say ;) In the Classic SETI days I had 6 Pentium IV machines shut in a small room with Air Conditioning to keep the room temps reasonable in the Summer, so I know how easy it is to rack up the bills. Since then though the cost of power has more than doubled, so this time around could be harder to swallow, but we'll see. |
AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per Kwh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. At least on a key meter you can keep tabs on things. With an RAC as high as yours I assumed you were running multiple machines, but I just checked and you have one that is storming out the results! |
haddock29 Send message Joined: 18 Sep 99 Posts: 36 Credit: 26,012,417 RAC: 0 |
As I use electrical energy to heat the house, I spend 0 (euros, no matter) for SETI during 6 months (winter, mainly). That is not not the same story during summer. But it is stille 0 half of the time. In order to save the climate, northern hemisphere countries should compute from november to april, southern hemisphere from may to october. For the equatorial/tropical countries, I dont know. |
AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
As I use electrical energy to heat the house, I spend 0 (euros, no matter) for SETI during 6 months (winter, mainly). That is not not the same story during summer. But it is stille 0 half of the time. I must admit that is my thinking. I have a gas heater which is on 24/7 in the room where the new computers are going to be situated, so that can soon go off once the machines are buzzing away and generating heat. Last Summer was so grim & cold here that the heating was put on more than a few times, so maybe with the heat off the PCs that won't be necessary this year! |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51478 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per Kwh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. Well...it's been running around $220.00/month for the last couple of months with no AC running....about 2/3 of that bill is the cruncher's power consumption. In the summer with AC running 24/7 to cool the farm, add about $100.00/month, and that's almost all for the crunchers........ "Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once." |
SATAN Send message Joined: 27 Aug 06 Posts: 835 Credit: 2,129,006 RAC: 0 |
This thing eats power like we breathe air, it's only having a little run to see what can be achieved in 3 weeks. Hpefully will be able to have it full time all the time soon. |
zoom3+1=4 Send message Joined: 30 Nov 03 Posts: 66336 Credit: 55,293,173 RAC: 49 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per KWh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. And summer is coming, I have to buy 2 sets of pads, New black hose and a motor as they burn up out here as sometimes the only way to stay cool is to run the swamp cooler 24/7, Right now I have all My windows open(the ones with screens at least) and with 3 PCs online It's 76F(78F near the PCs) inside and outside It's 72F. And Yeah I just added a B3 Q6600 PC and put It online at 2.75GHz(1.55vcore, cpu temp 44C w/2 cores running as I only have two WU's downloaded at the moment). Savoir-Faire is everywhere! The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51478 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per KWh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. Good luck with the new cruncher!!! You should be able to get 3 to 3.2ghz easily out of it if your cooling is up to the task..... "Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once." |
zoom3+1=4 Send message Joined: 30 Nov 03 Posts: 66336 Credit: 55,293,173 RAC: 49 |
Andy, ours is currently 11.5 pence per KWh, however we use about £1.50 a day with the machine on all day, gonna have to cut it back to 18 hours a day or so come the end of the month. It's a B3 and the motherboard uses an i975X chipset, I've tried faster and the FSB won't go higher than 306MHz, I'd need a P35 motherboard to replace It with(It's an Abit AW9D-MAX which was designed before Quad cores came out and so It's barely compatible w/Quads). The ram with a dual core will do 374MHz, This motherboard just can't or won't go any farther and I lucked out on the speed as It was hard to get to, I've tried more vcore and more vdimm and since the multi is locked I can't go that way, But since the multiplier is locked the Quad will boot while overclocked, My Extreme cpus can't do that in the Abit motherboard while overclocked, Go Figure, Abit at one time was saying It could be a Bios problem or a Hardware problem(I'm leaning towards hardware myself). Savoir-Faire is everywhere! The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST |
AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
Right now I have all My windows open(the ones with screens at least) and with 3 PCs online It's 76F(78F near the PCs) inside and outside It's 72F. It's a different world isn't it? I awoke to thick freezing fog this morning. Everything is blanketed in Frost. It is days like today that you don't mind the extra heat from the machines. |
SATAN Send message Joined: 27 Aug 06 Posts: 835 Credit: 2,129,006 RAC: 0 |
Our frost has gone from down in Corwnwall for today thank god, a little slippy underfoot but nothing to bad. No fog which is a blessing, it was a lovely sunrise this morning too. The ambient temperature in the flat is about 16C or 60.8F for you guys across the pond. Time to open the windows in a minute and let some fresh air in. |
David Send message Joined: 19 May 99 Posts: 411 Credit: 1,426,457 RAC: 0 |
13p/kw - OUTCH! We pay AU$0.16 per KW (inc GST) way under 1/2 your power cost. My main PC runs in at 215w normally, but with the HDD's powered down when I am not using it it comes in a little under 125 watts. The media PC, almost the same specs wont go below 165w but I think it is the spun down draw of one of the drives - it appears to use more power in standby than running?!?!?! Both pc's run 24/7, but only the media PC is overclocked (Moderate 6% as its standard cooling is not up to the task yet - have to organise a better cooler soon) |
Fred J. Verster Send message Joined: 21 Apr 04 Posts: 3252 Credit: 31,903,643 RAC: 0 |
13p/kw - OUTCH! We pay AU$0.16 per KW (inc GST) way under 1/2 your power cost. My main PC runs in at 215w normally, but with the HDD's powered down when I am not using it it comes in a little under 125 watts. The media PC, almost the same specs wont go below 165w but I think it is the spun down draw of one of the drives - it appears to use more power in standby than running?!?!?! Hi guy's ,in Europe, the Netherlands DON'T come cheap, with their electricity! . It's about €00,23 KWh == nearly $00.30 KWh. Four PC's in use, including a LapTop , all together the use 800Watt per hour = 24 x0.8KW= 19,2 KWh = €4,44 a day ! Doesn't come cheap !!! //Fredericx51\\\\ |
Natronomonas Send message Joined: 13 Apr 02 Posts: 176 Credit: 3,367,602 RAC: 0 |
My quad, with an 8800gts (not so good for power, and I don't use it enough anymore) and 4hdd, is something like ~230W when crunching, going up to 300W when the graphics is being used in 3D. So average of 230W 24/7, I pay around 15c/kwh...5.5kwh per day, 83c/day, $5.80/week, $300 per year. Ouch. Hadn't realised it was quite that high...! And that's not counting the laptop or new media PC, haven't measured their power draw yet, and they both get left on nearly all the time. And soon there will be a PS3 too, 65nm, not the new 45nm variant (got for free as part of a Sony promotion, so can't complain!) Be nice to have graphics cards that clocked down in idle, like CnQ for PCs - 8800's draw some stupid amount in idle, really, I need to have a basic 2D card I can swap in and out as required... maybe I should put it on the SETI wishlist board : ) Crunching SETI@Home as a member of the Whirlpool BOINC Teams |
ChrisD Send message Joined: 25 Sep 99 Posts: 158 Credit: 2,496,342 RAC: 0 |
Which 2 machines is connected here? Your account shows 4 so that would be interesting facts to get. Next, have You checked that this value is correct? Even an old Pentium II machine had a power supply of 200 watts, so I wonder how 2 machines can get by with that little power. (Laptops?) I would very much like to know, what mainboards, cpus and how much RAM and of course which Graphics Cards and HDDs are used. In Denmark total cost per KWh is DKK 1.8 = US$.35, and due to some new taxregulations this price is destined to go up another 10 cents. Does anybody know a source where the power consumption of different chipsets are listed? ChrisD |
AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
Yep, you guessed right. The Dual core Pentium (Seti1) and the Laptop are currently connected to this socket - oh, and a 4 port switch too. The Dual core is a DELL E520, it is a new breed and are very power efficient. It has 2 * 512Mb sticks of memory & 1 * 40Gb Sata drive. The fans hardly run as DELL have put a HUGE heatsink in the machine which is very efficient. I am waiting in today for a parcel to arrive with 2 * 2.8Ghz Pentium IV machines to arrive, so with any luck, they will be on it by tonight too - that will ramp up the load! |
ChrisD Send message Joined: 25 Sep 99 Posts: 158 Credit: 2,496,342 RAC: 0 |
13p/kw - OUTCH! We pay AU$0.16 per KW (inc GST) way under 1/2 your power cost. My main PC runs in at 215w normally, but with the HDD's powered down when I am not using it it comes in a little under 125 watts. The media PC, almost the same specs wont go below 165w but I think it is the spun down draw of one of the drives - it appears to use more power in standby than running?!?!?! Autch :) A suffering Friend :) Well, maybe we should try to dig up PCI-Express graphics cards that uses as little power as possible. Vendors never state the power consumption of their Graphics Cards, and they certainly do not make low powered cards. I have tried to get a low power graphics card, but I have to judge from the size of the heatfan. I have found that PCI Cards can be too old to use in a new PCI-Express Mainboard, so I will have to stick to a PCI-Express card to make sure it stays stable. Have You come across a low power graphics PCI-Express Card? ChrisD |
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