Somehow when people discuss going green, computers are inevitably left out of the conversation. Wind power, solar power, oil dependency, conserving fresh water, and even turning the lights off come to mind. But we forget about the personal computer.
It’s confusing why as a society we’ll get so bent out of shape on replacing a 60 watt light bulb with a 14 watt one, but think turning off and turning on our computer every day is asking a little too much. Seems backwards.
Why should we think about the computer? An average personal computer will use between 200 – 300 watts while idling. Under load, they can push 600 watts or more. Add more depending on how many power hungry cpu’s, video cards, and monitors you have shoved into that fancy plastic case, and you got yourself a major source of your electric bill.
The answer is computers are such an integral part of the modern life style that turning it off seems the moral equivalent of chopping off an arm. Learning how to wean ourselves off of this mindset can certainly save us some money in the long run, however.
Some programs seek to harness this unused power by making your computer work for them while you’re at work or out of the house. The most prevalent of these is called Folding@Home, courtesy of Stanford University.
Folding@Home promises to use your computer for the good of humanity by having your cpu solve complex mathematical equations. Seems all well and good, especially if your computer was going to be humming along all day anyways. The bad, however, can cost you and can cost the environment.
What Stanford is basically doing is having you pay for their research with Folding@Home. Yup. They don’t have to buy or rent out massive servers to do their computations. Instead, they make it into a game with teams and points to see which computers can help them solve algorithms the fastest. The PlayStation 3 is notoriously fast at doing so. But what’s the cost?
The cost, if we take the PlayStation 3 example, is the same as plugging in another five refrigerators at your house. Except these refrigerators don’t refrigerate anything. The only thing they do is add on average another $250 per year to your electric bill, all the while churning out more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In case you weren’t aware, the primary source of electricity in the United State is from coal.
Programs like these aren’t necessarily evil in their inception. However, when it comes to the environment and perhaps more importantly your own wallet, do yourself a favor and press the power button when you walk out of the house.