When you're not using your computer, it can be in a few different power states. Lets just say there's on and off. If it's on, you could be wasting energy and damaging the environment. Most of them chomp quite a bit of power. Then again, you can have it on when you don't need it, and it can be working on solving some of the biggest social challenges we all face. If it's off, it's just not doing anything, not hurting, not helping.

What's an idle computer supposed to do?

So, if you're not using it, what *is* it doing? Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and some developers in the GNU/Linux community all have ideas about what you want and they make assumptions that when you're not using the computer, you probably want the computer to be working to improve its performance through indexing or rearranging data. Maybe automatic backups or software updates are important to you.

The people over at Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home, and World Community Grid have a few suggestions for what a lonely CPU might do, and I think they're on the right track

What's important? Does running that 150W machine all night, just so I can open a spreadsheet in 4 seconds instead of 7 seconds, really balance out? Granted, automatic sleep mode helps to cut down the consumption, but I could still compare it to leaving a 40 watt light bulb on in an empty, unused room.

What's an idle computer need to idle?

Let's say I leave my computer on all of the time. The Personal Environmental Impact Calculator gives me these results about my energy consumption:

Now, I can't attest to the credibility of this calculator, but it's certainly useful in starting the conversation. If I wanted to know how much that was costing, I could visit Ameren's Rate map (keeping in mind they just sent me a letter reporting that they were requesting another increase this year) and assume that I'll pay about $.10 per KWhr this year. That's $174.70 per year for having the computer on. Honestly, I suspect the real amount for me is around half of that, but dang, half of that?! That's *my* money! Here's a great site if you would like to explore electricity costs more.

Putting an idle computer to work

Well, I want my computer on for a variety of pretty geeky reasons anyway, so I decided a long time ago that idle computer time would be a better investment for me if I was working on, you know, like curing AIDS or cancer or something. The general idea is that people know what questions they want to ask about very complex data, but they don't have the computing power to get the answers. If the organization has a positive and important mission, anyone may choose to donate their idle computer power to assist with a part of the work. And, people do in a big way. With lots of computers working on lots of parts of the same project, the answers are likely to get answered sooner.

There have been lots of ways to do this in the past, but none so easy as BOINC (that's Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). It's a program that let's you select from a list of computing projects and control them in a single interface. They call it volunteer computing. How easy is that? I'm a volunteer, with real contributions, and my effort is almost nothing more than I'm already doing (granted, if the computer does more work, the computer uses more power).

Now I have a question that I'm not sure how to approach. Is the value I'm adding to society and the planet really offsetting the energy I'm using? Where's the calculator for that? Is there a document that identifies the value of this computing time? I know there's an important qualitative measure there: what's the value of curing AIDS to me? or predicting floods? I'd really like to see a tool to help me understand it more. Maybe I'll make a facebook app.

But, what are the questions *I* need to be asking?

comments...

Critic Dave (from 74.223.184.xxx) on 2008-04-16 11:21:32 said: I think its a good article! The links dont contrast the actual text enough. Its hard to tell they are links. reply to this

thanks steve (from 74.223.184.xxx) on 2008-04-16 14:39:16 said: Thanks for the feedback Dave. I switched the colors around. reply to this

Does it help or not? Robert Wagnon (from 74.223.184.xxx) on 2008-04-16 14:39:19 said: The increasing speed of computers makes me wonder if it isn't better so save the energy consumption now and compute next year when computers are twice as fast AND take half the energy. It definitely indicates that slow computers should be turned off or replaced. There is probably an optimal decision based upon expected energy availabilityy, expected energy efficiency, and expected computation power. Perhaps the best answer without extensive research calculations for workstation use is: on during the day (using idle time during your work day) and off at night (when the computer isn't otherwise necessary.) Then energy versus social value isn't a question at all. reply to this

Don't forget the cost of cool Robert Wagnon (from 74.223.184.xxx) on 2008-04-16 14:40:41 said: Don't forget the energy costs of cooling the local environment of the computer in the summer (your home.) And the savings of heat generation in the winter. reply to this

Christian Birmele (from 165.130.209.xxx) on 2008-04-17 10:08:06 said: Quantifying your direct benefit from scientific research is difficult due to the permutations involved, but your lot does improve with that of society. Even if you never become a flood victim, your insurance premiums will stay low if you insurer has fewer payouts. Even if you never develop a chronic disease, a cure would benefit the economy through increased worker productivity. Instead of asking yourself what would be your specific monetary benefit from loaning out your processor time, maybe you should ask what is your personal threshold? If you can calculate that the ultimate benefit to you will at least pay for the donated processor's energy usage, is that enough? The NOAA website shows a picture of the economic impact of disasters, including floods: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html The US Bureau of Labor Stats has numbers on workplace illness requiring days off of work: http://www.bls.gov/iif/ Still, I'm not sure how you'd quantify your direct return on your processor time investment. The benefits flow through to you, but are they worth the energy spent on your idle computer (which would be, what... $174.10*0.875 if you're using your computer 3hrs/day for a year, so $152.34 per year)? reply to this

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