F@H - Sustainability Project for School

[panchoman]

Hi guys,*

So for my university, I'm required to do a sustainability project, basically like a way to "reduce,reuse,recycle" in some original way.*

(last years winner was to refurb old school comps and sell them)

So, my idea is to install F@H on all of the the school comps, as there are numerous of them, that are all always on regardless of usage. So the point would be putting all of he energy usage to good use .

So here's what I need help with:

Statistics for f@h, like how effective it is, stuff like. Convincing arguments you know.

And of course, how should I present the idea? Was thinking maybe like a quick 1 page overview + comic. Any ideas, thoughts?

If I win, and it is implementable(which it is), it will be implemented

 

[Bundy]

I think you should restrict the scope to times where heating is needed in the buildings, otherwise you might face questions about power usage and whether your idea is truely sustainable.

 

[sneekypeet]

One would assume the environment of the PC lab would be already thermally controlled (IE heat in the winter or AC in the summer) I think if he set a mass farm to only use a percent of the CPU usage, as not to make the lab super slow Folding at 100%, the heat wouldn't be such a concern.

I think finding concrete status of success based on F@H to cure or aid in curing anything is the tough part of the presentation.

 

[panchoman]

would running f@h really cause that much heat and power usage? I figured that since the computers are already on and what not, that running f@h wouldn't really affect power usage or heat production significantly..


as for the stats, i'm trying to kind of get round figures kind of like this:

there are xxxx comps on campus, that are run xx hours a week, consuming xxxxxx watts of power, causing a power bill of xxxxxx, and while this has to be done, it could atleast be put to good use by running f@h and trying to do scientific research, these xxxx comps generate ~yyyy tflops of power and are the equivalent of xxx supercomputers trying to do complex problems

and then for presentation i was kind of thinking of something graphic, but also something written, so kind of like a quick 1 page overview, plus was thinking a cool graphic of like the stats proportioned together or something, or like of how distributed computing works, and was thinking something nice out of comic life, but not sure. also considering a brochure type thing, which would combine most everything together..

any thoughts?

 

[Bundy]

I wasn't saying that the heat itself would cause a problem. However as F@H does produce heat, it would be best done when heating is needed in the buildings, not when the air conditioner is running. That might not be viewed as "sustainable" in a global political sense these days.

In terms of power usage - it should cost nothing in winter because the heating system in the rooms would do less work to maintain temperatures. That can be a part of your justification.

 

[panchoman]

okay guys, here's another thing i ran into:

folding or crunching?

i've heard crunching is more efficent, and more causes..

which one should i go with? and which one would be the better arguement?