Info Just to let you know ...

[petrusbroder]

Hi TeAm-mates, as some of you may have noticed, my production is way down. There are several reasons for this:

The price of electricity has more than doubled in 2018-2019 due to energy tax. What I find frustrating is that the energy tax is added to the "real" price of power before VAT is added. Thus I am paying 25% more (the VAT is 25%) on the tax, i.e. if the energy tax is increased by 5 cents/KWh the real increase is 6,25 cents/KWh. The total price (inkl. taxes) of electricity is now 19 cents/KWh, which is double the price compared to 2 years ago. In 2018 I had all my 6 computers running essentially 24/7 which used approx 13000 KWh at a price of 2500 USD which is almost twice as much as in 2016. The corresponding bill for 2019 would be more than 3000 USD. I consider that too much considering that my computers use 48% of all the household's energy. I am not so much concerned where the energy comes from (I purchase all my power from a company which sells hydroelectric, solar and wind power only) and that is one of the least expensive power utilities)

The second reason is that the fun and joy of running DC has decreased a lot. My computers are old(er), their efficiency is down and the joy in crunching for science and for the points is not as large as it was before. What keeps me still running is the TeAm. But then the time i have to be active in the community here is much less. The reason for that is that my responsibilities in work have increased a lot. Unfortunately my workplace has been reorganized and I have been given more to do and more to be responsible for. On top of that quite a few of my valued collaborators have taken the opportunity to retire, which makes my work harder. I am now working 65+ hours/week (including on call duties) which is a lot for a 60+ years old MD. However, that work gives joy and a lot of fun, so I don't mind that a lot, but I am tired when I get home ...

I will continue to crunch on one computer 24/7 (with 6 cores and a 1080 GPU) and one computer for approx. 12 hours/day. One laptop will be doing WCG.
The projects I will crunch will be Seti@home, Climateprediction@home and WCG. Seti because I really like that project and that got me started in DC. I like Climateprediction a lot and that may be important and WCG grid is one of my favorites since I started it - because of the many projects it contains and because it has produced a lot of published results.
I will also start and join the 14th Annual Folding@Home Holiday Season Race in December 2019.
I will also be around now and then as time allows ...

 

[StefanR5R]

About being tired when getting home from work: I am at an age where this afflicts me as well, have eventually learned that this must be dealt with, but haven't yet fully figured out how to manage it. I trust that you are wiser about these things, and am wishing that you stay well.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Thank you for the update petrus. It is always important to find a balance point in work/life/family. Thank you for all you have done, and will continue to do!

 

[lane42]

Hi Petrus, can't say Sorry to see you go, because your not going anyware but your doing the smart thing.
When the electric bill becomes a car payment every month and the fun go's away a little it's time to take a break.
You will allways be an asset and Good Guy for the Team......
Just say to your self what that american actor once said, ill be back....

 

[petrusbroder]

 

[crashtech]

Hey petrus, I think many of us have struggled with similar issues. The price of electricity in some countries could get me on a serious rant about where we get our power and how I feel that people are lacking in the ability to be rational about momentous decisions, but that's probably for another sub-forum. Needing best ppd/KWh sure alters decision making regarding hardware. Perhaps some retired cell phones could be a power efficient option for WCG? They do have an Android app that I have always wanted to try.

Anyway, glad you are staying in any capacity, the place just wouldn't be the same without you!

 

[IEC]

My rent and electricity rates will go up in June as well. Downside of living in the oil patch during the boom part of the boom/bust cycle...

I don't plan on cutting back per se, but I'll likely only turn on all the rigs to participate in sprints/races. As well as continue to sell off gear from a different hobby to offset the considerably cheaper computer addiction hobby I have...

There will be good seasons and there will be bad seasons, but as long as you're here we'll be happy

 

[lane42]

Petrus, you even look a little like Arnold

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, stay well Petrus, sleep deprivation is a serious issue. I have issues with that too.

As far as crunching, well, your participation is legendary, so I'm not worried if you need to cut down a bit. After all, you used to literally heat your house with your PCs (if I remember right).

I do something similar, but I have a much smaller apt., and less (active) PCs.

I'm currently at a low slump for crunching too, and, I'm sorry TeAm, I haven't been watching very well the "FB Sprints", "PG challenges", and the times the TeAm could use some help from time to time.

I've been sucked into the rabbit-hole of "mining", and have been kind of trapped there, as I'm on a fairly limited income, and even $30-40/mo extra income could be somewhat substantial for me, to make ends meet. (If only I didn't have such an addiction to online shopping. )

That being said, some mining algos can co-exist on the GPUs (I run RX 570 cards, primarily) with F@H (I use dedicated PCs, not some monster mining PC using x1 riser cards, so I can get enough bandwidth to my cards for DC work too, although my AM4 boards only have PCI-E 2.0 x4 to the secondary slot, I think), and recent versions of NHML refuse to mine on my Ryzen R5 1600 CPUs, so I could probably re-purpose the CPUs for some DC work. Will look into that soon.

You'll always be part of the TeAm, Petrus. Cruch when / how you can, but Life comes First.

 

[ao_ika_red]

My computers are old(er), their efficiency is down

Perhaps, next gen Ryzen can replace half of your arsenal while consuming lesser power.

I am now working 65+ hours/week (including on call duties) which is a lot for a 60+ years old MD. However, that work gives joy and a lot of fun, so I don't mind that a lot, but I am tired when I get home

Well, you've done a lot for humanity at work and still do so at home. So yes, you deserve all the rest you can get. Your health is your only priority right now.

Perhaps some retired cell phones could be a power efficient option for WCG? They do have an Android app that I have always wanted to try.

I've tried that and didn't end well. It took way too long for single task and presumably the cpu throttled as well because I could feel back of the phone became very warm. IMO, doing it on Raspberry-like device is more sensible, just a bit though.

 

[zzuupp]

PB, We all know life happens sometimes. Thanks for the heads up.

Can't wait 'til your back.

 

[ericlp]

Well, I think the big island of hawaii, is the most expensive power in the USA. If I didn't buy this workspace, that basically shares power for the entire building. I would not be crunching as much as I do. It's like running a 700 watt heater, then running AC to keep it cool, since there are no air vents where the computer is. The AC is a 12K BTU 220 Volt. I estimate, that I probably pull down about 1400~1500 watts every hour.

Anyway, I don't think you are alone in making the decision to cut back on computer power when looking at power bills. Maybe consider solar... Maybe for the next build!