http://www.hardcoreware.net/ps3-power-usage-during-foldinghome/

"We were the first to give the full scoop on power consumption in today’s consoles, so we broke out the trusty old watt meter to find out how much power is being sucked by the PS3 while folding. I had feared the worst, as the Core processors must be working at their full potential doing these calculations.

I am happy to report that the PS3 consumes no more than about 200W while folding. This is the same peak we saw from it during gameplay. Considering that the PS3 accounts for about 65% of Folding@Home’s current TFLOPS, yet only 13% of the total active processors, this should be considered yet another bragging point for the PS3 as a folding unit.

To give an idea of how much this might cost, my Watts-Up Pro estimates that the PS3 will consume about 138 KiloWatt Hours per month at this rate. The price of electricity varies widely around the world, but here in Hong Kong, I pay about $0.12 USD per KWh (after my normal power usage is accounted for). So to keep the PS3 folding 24/7, I will be paying about $16.56 extra on my power bill each month. If I still lived in Vancouver, where they have an abundant amount of hydroelectric power, the cost per KWh is a paltry $0.053 USD. This would mean an extra $7.30 every month to have the PS3 folding 24/7. A small price to pay considering how efficient the PS3 is at folding; at this rate, we may just get some good results from this project after all!"

Let's see, in Tampa, FL I'm at $.10318 per KWh, so using the same monthly usage figures it'll theoretically cost me $14.84 per month to run Folding 24/7.

Realistically, I'll probably do about half that, so $7.50 a month to support this research is okay by me. The NRC needs to start commissioning some more nuclear plants!

Yes the PS3 is the cheapest folding computer from a hardware standpoint, and from a power consumption standpoint. If I ran it 24/7 it would cost me about $12 per month. Ofcoarse some of that energy will go toward playing video games and watching BD movies.:)

On edit: Apparantly the computers that are faster at folding than the PS3 cost about $5,000, I wonder how much kwh they consume?

hmm..i live in Bermuda, .31 cents/kwh, that would be 42 dollars for me/month..ouch...however I'm going solar soon, so my solarPs3 might be the thing to wait for !

$180 a year? And I thought Live was expensive.

$180 a year? And I thought Live was expensive.

.....what does the max ps3 power consumption have to do with live?

anyways that is some neat info

$180 a year? And I thought Live was expensive.

In the grand scheme, this is a little more important than playing video games. Don'tcha think? :rolleyes:

. The NRC needs to start commissioning some more nuclear plants!

They should have done this years ago!! Damn activists...and politicians.

hmm..i live in Bermuda, .31 cents/kwh, that would be 42 dollars for me/month..ouch...however I'm going solar soon, so my solarPs3 might be the thing to wait for !

I saw that little dot out in the Atlantic ocean...It must have been you..LOL
Big bucks for utilities there...My father lived there and my grandparents are buried there.

Originally posted Micheal St. Clair
$180 a year? And I thought Live was expensive.

A computer would consume about the same electricity, yet the PS3 is over 10 times faster. $180 is a bargain...

Forgive me, but I'm not entirely clearn on what Folding at Home is in the first place. I know that it has something to do with research at Stanford, but beyond that I'm pretty clueless. Can someone fill me in?

Forgive me, but I'm not entirely clearn on what Folding at Home is in the first place. I know that it has something to do with research at Stanford, but beyond that I'm pretty clueless. Can someone fill me in?
http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#project

$180 a year? And I thought Live was expensive.

Live doesnt include the electrical useage of your xbox.

A computer would consume about the same electricity, yet the PS3 is over 10 times faster. $180 is a bargain...

Actually, the GPU client whips the PS3 client in the butt, but it's still in beta. ATI gaming rigs for the win. And the PC multicore client is still an unstable beta as well. As millions of newer PCs ship and the beta clients to to release, we'll see tons of people who can fold more efficiently than the PS3.

And on top of it all tons of people have work PCs that are running most/all of the day anyway, so they can fold without increasing their carbon footprint in the way that the PS3 does.

Folding is an awesome thing, and folding without wasting so much power is even better. :)

FYI I have completed six work units. :)

It is definetly true that the current generation ATI GPU beats the PS3. But there isn't a whole lot of people using their ATI cards for folding, hopefully that number goes up as newer cards, ie R600, come out and current ones get even cheaper.

One thing I do have to point out though, the computers that are left on most/all day for work will most likely increase their carbon footprint if they are set to fold. The reason is because if you leave a computer idling it will consume less power then if the CPU(s) were maxed out for folding.

Regardless since the computer is on, have it consume a little more to fold. But really, the PS3 would use that energy more efficiently for folding than the current crop of CPUs out right now. I'm sure in the long run that will change, but thats the future.

Keep on folding, I'm using a few computers and PS3. :)

It is definetly true that the current generation ATI GPU beats the PS3. But there isn't a whole lot of people using their ATI cards for folding, hopefully that number goes up as newer cards, ie R600, come out and current ones get even cheaper.

Yes, even the PS3 folding contributors (myself included) should really hope to see the ATI GPU folding take off, if they really believe in the cause instead of pissing contests.

Regardless since the computer is on, have it consume a little more to fold. But really, the PS3 would use that energy more efficiently for folding than the current crop of CPUs out right now. I'm sure in the long run that will change, but thats the future.

Keep on folding, I'm using a few computers and PS3. :)

I think it will change pretty quickly, not just in the long run. Systems that can use the GPU client or at least the multicore client are going to explode in popularity! And even the marginal increase is potentially very small with current systems. Lots of people already run 3D screensavers that increase power usage, better to see them fold!

FYI I am folding with the PS3 and two PCs and more to come! :)

IGN (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/776/776347p1.html)

Graph shows how much it cost to fold 24/7 in all of the states, according to IGN's research.