Hi there.

I'm still new here and i don't intend on being a heavy number cruncher.
My goal is to help some projects as SETI@home, Rosetta@home and WCG while keeping the electric bill as low as possible and still making the computer quite responsive as if it wasn't running Boinc at all.
That being said all the computers i have Boinc running are only using 35% of the CPU power, and Boinc pauses when the CPU usage exceeds 65%.
I stopped them at 35% because that seems to be the sweet spot for most machines when it comes to low power consumption in comparasion to not running boinc, and keeping fans RPMs as low as possible while still delivering WU in time.

My question is if you think i'm doing this the wrong way and if you have a better ideia to run Boinc while still meeting all the requirements stated above.

Thanks in advance

The "wrong" or "right" way really depends on your personal preference... For most computer use (except for high-performance apps, such as gaming, etc) you probably won't notice a lag while running at 100% CPU usage, since the BOINC processes are low priority and other apps will take precedence. However, if you have a compute-capable GPU, you'll probably want to use the "don't use while computer is in use" setting for it, because GPU computing will give you a noticeable lag in the user interface. Usually--I've found that the GPU app for Moo! wrapper doesn't quite make full utilization of the GPU (90% +/- 5%) and therefore does not present a UI lag for most everyday Windows programs.

I currently only run my laptops at 70% due to cooling concerns, all desktops are 100% all the time and I rarely hear the fans spin up much on them. If heat is a concern, there are tools such as TThrottle to help you scale BOINC back when things are running hot.

Regarding power consumption, it will take more power to compute all the time, so it depends on how much you're willing to donate to the cause. I currently have two hosts that run 24/7 (one only because it has troubles with sleep mode, the other is my DVR and QCN sensor) and the other machines are only on when I use them, otherwise they're set to go to sleep within an hour.

For one power consumption example, I have my old Athlon 64x2 with a Radeon HD 4670 on a UPS with power display. At idle, it draws about 140 watts, at full CPU and GPU load it pulls 205 watts, without the monitor on.

Good to have you on board, every computer helps.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

I'm sorry to only awnser now.

Well i'm running this on a variety of computers, ranging from really ancient ones to reasonable ones. I tend to control as much as i can my energy costs and that is one reason why i don't do GPU computing at all. Also heat is a big concern and not all the computers in use are mine so i need to respect what i promissed to the people that agreed to help the cause. Not much too much power consumption, not too much excess heat and to impact in performance. Using any cpu at 35% and pausing the work when cpu usage exceeds 65% seems to be a sweet spot for most cpus according to my watt meter (Pentiums 4 2.8 and 3.2ghz, CULCS cpu at 1.2Ghz, AMD APU 5300 and i5 750). I also have an old Pentium 3 laptop at 550MHZ but i leave that one at 100% for other reasons.

All-in-All i like to help these causes and not increase mine or anyones power bills, or heat inside the computer.

If only i had a HUGE solar panel :)

You may want to decrease the % crunching you do in summer and increase it in winter, turning off the space heating in the room. If the room's space heating is provided by electricity, it probably hardly costs more to let the computer work harder and warm up the room. If the space heating is provided by gas, that will be cheaper.

The older computers will use more electricity to process the same tasks; newer computers are much more efficient.

The older computers will use more electricity to process the same tasks; newer computers are much more efficient.

Yes i'm aware, still most of the ancient computers i'm using are computers at work that need to be on 8 to 9 hours a day, so i'd better put them to good use if i'm allowed.

That other suggestion of yours for heating the room is interesting, i should try this later on this year. In the summer it's almost impossile as my room gets up to 25\28ºC just with regular computer usage.

My i5 750 is overclocked to 3.8Ghz and along with a idling ATI 7870 pushes 97 watts when completely idle. When using boinc at 35% it can go as high as 130\145 watts so that's roughtly €1.60 more per month than if not using boinc at all.

Still as little as it is, it's still a welcome help for the projects i'm in i guess.

That other suggestion of yours for heating the room is interesting, i should try this later on this year. In the summer it's almost impossile as my room gets up to 25\28ºC just with regular computer usage.

It will certainly contribute, but unless you live in a very mild climate, it won't be practical as a primary heating source. While computers do produce waste heat, they are not very efficient heaters and are not operating in the watt range that most electric heaters are, in the kilowatt range. I don't know how much savings you might see on your heating, since I've been running computers with BOINC since I lived in the dorms and don't have a baseline heating bill to compare with.

I think the decision to run BOINC or not would be more relevant when discussing cooling in the summer; when it's going to get much above 85 degrees F or so, I will shut down or sleep my computers to keep the house cooler. I only have a window AC unit in my office, where three of the computers are but only run it when I'm in there. My electric bill doesn't fluctuate much between winter and summer, though my heat is gas.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

If the space heating is provided by gas, that will be cheaper.

Are you trying to tell that gas is so much cheaper where you are? Or that it is cheaper for a gas stoked heater to heat a room than it is for a high-output, thus electricity slurping electro-heater?

I am asking, as most of my yearly energy bill goes to gas, which at 65 eurocents a cubic meter is probably more expensive than the electricity running at 21.18 cents per KWh for night time usage and 22.87 cents per KWh for day time usage. But then, how does one compare kilowatt-hours with cubic meters? :-)
(Prices are now including tax and such)

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Hi, since this thread seems already taken over (;) I have a small question about setting the CPU usage. Is it alright to change it very often or is it better to stop tasks?

I'm on Linux and have written a script which changes the percentage according to temperature. TThrottle for Windows stops tasks so I'm not sure what's the correct way.

Regards

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My reasons to participate in grid computing:
1. I'm using true renewable energy (German accreditation; no certificate purchasing)
2. Production and disposal (will) amount to about 95% of the energy "used" during the lifetime of my PC
3. Helping

Although I don't have any data to back it up, I would assume that changing the percentage on the fly would be much more efficient in terms of still allowing computation to happen. That would be something I'd like to see in the official BOINC preferences, as I want to maximize computation but my different hosts all handle the CPU and heat loads differently.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

Have you tried all BOINC add-ons? Maybe ThreadMaster and BES do change the usage ...

Maybe you could work on my bash script and make it a batch file ...?
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=9355
Though you'd need a sensor command-line tool but everything else should be feasible.

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My reasons to participate in grid computing:
1. I'm using true renewable energy (German accreditation; no certificate purchasing)
2. Production and disposal (will) amount to about 95% of the energy "used" during the lifetime of my PC
3. Helping