[FAD]Shutting down!

[Win2Kuser]

Just got in from work, all the computers were shut down. On the main server monitor was a note from the missus "Shutdown! look at the electric bill!!!" On the keyboard was the bill.

At the moment, we are paying £52.00 per month electric, according to the bill which was from an actual reading not an estimate, we are £307 behind payment. To bring the balance back into credit by thier year end (April), we now will have to pay £121 for the next 3 months, a one off payment of £100, plus whatever extra we have used by the end of April.

I haven't spoken to the wifey about this yet, but going by the way she shutdown the computers (literally pulled the plug) and the note etc, I would say she ain't too happy.

It the air con thats pushing it up, got the darn thing running 24/7, if I can maybe persuade her to let me keep enough running so that it doesn't get too hot and therefore not requiring the aircon, then thats what I'll do, this will result in a drop of output from 17 gigs to about 10 or 11 :(

I'll keep you posted...

In the mean time, it's 3pm, she doesn't get in til 6pm, lets see what I can get out in 3 hours :)

[GohanSSJ]

Damn. :(

If i were you i would just pull the plug on every computer you don't need for now, running FaD and all is a good thing, but it shouldn't be that you get yourself in trouble for having to many computers running, really i would just shut every computer down that you don't need.

[tmx468]

W2k... do what I have done - I dropped my room temps by about 5-8 Celsius simply by separating machines, ensuring plenty of cooling etc..

And without the LED's attached, you can run a couple of PC's in any room without really noticing them ;)

Having said that.... you don't really want to push the missus too far...!

[davidw]

What about using a window fan? Go headless on all except the most necessary and put in a simple window fan (not A/C unit) and have it vent out the heat. That would be the BEST alternative. I'm going to be doing that in a few months when summer hits. Hmmm. Fedex just pulled up... wonder what's here?

[Win2Kuser]

Unfortunately, my computer room is a converted garage, no windows, and a flat roof which just soaks up any heat outside like a greenhouse, so window fans are out, I have got the computers as far apart from each other as I can get them.

I will just have to see what wifey says when she gets in.

I certainly will not be shutting them all down, I will make sure that I have at least 5 running 24/7 and if nessessary, will shutdown only the slow ones.

We'll see...


Hope it's something nice C-Comp :)

[Mntsnow]

LOL I do know that note W2K! I've reciently gone thru that myself.

We are now basically only running the absolutely required systems in our home. Do what you can and the world will appricate it all the same.

[geobot]

my solution was to get rid of all the old slow computers. now i have 3 xp2100 1 barton 2500 and a 1.3 which is soon to be at least a 2100. less computers more power. works for me

[Nukes]

Man, that's rough.
If you aren't already, get as many as possible running headless. You can just administer them via ssh (if you're on Linux) or Vnc (for windows)
I've found that you can normally flog off a few relativley old/slow machines and get enough money to buy faster chips, which will put out more jobs than the others.
Anyway, don't worry about it, you're still one of the leading members of the team and always will be (even if your output drops to nothing)

[davidw]

Originally posted by Win2Kuser
Hope it's something nice C-Comp :) It turned out to be the Warranty replacement from Crucial that I spoke about. They've switched from UPS to fedex.

[Centurion]

- 30 celcius here right now - they could run and just provide heat!

C

[tony_j15]

Cut back on the Stella and post-its. That will save you enough to pay the bill.

[Win2Kuser]

Hmm, that went better than I hoped...

OK, update:

At the moment, I have 2 x XP2100's, 1 x XP2500, 2 x XP2600's
A total of 9.3 gigs running. Air con is definately and most positively OFF! Got a small fan running in the computer room just to move the air about.

Computers not currently running:
XP2000, AMD Pro2000, P3-900, Athlon 750 and a dual P2-333s.
I am going to see if I can put a couple of these upstairs, the trouble with that is the network cabling, Wirefree is out of budget atm, and I don't want to mess around with sneakernetting etc.

We'll see how it goes.

[PresterJohn]

Originally posted by Win2Kuser
Unfortunately, my computer room is a converted garage, no windows, and a flat roof which just soaks up any heat outside like a greenhouse, so window fans are out, I have got the computers as far apart from each other as I can get them.


so lemme see if i understand this right...all or most of your fad crunchers are in your garage and that you currently run an A/C there?

utility rates in many places is going up or has gone up...if you need to cut your usage, i would definitely make the cuts in the slower machines to start. for better cooling, i would also suggest that you build a 'bare rack' (plywood & screws are basically all you need) and mounting the mobo, ps...directly w/o a case. if you have a large fan blowing air over the exposed boards, it should cool it sufficiently and you can forego the a/c.

[Win2Kuser]

Thanks PJ, definately one of the better suggestions (give up Stella and post-its - jeesh):)

I have drawn up a few plans in the past, but it comes down to time/money.

The biggest problem is the room itself, even with nothing on, it still gets hot in here, it acts like a greenhouse.

Not sure what to do atm, will have to give it some in depth thought.

For the time being though, I am still crunching, just not as much as normal.

[PresterJohn]

>but it comes down to time/money

that's usually what most things boil down to once it gets analyzed and broken down :)

well, we don't want you to be in the poor house from running FAD. any chance some of those machines can be moved into the house (say the basement) where it's cooler?

the a/c is gotta be the bigest power draw of all.

[Omardeth]

well look at the bright side . gouki will have a chance now to pull away ..

[Omardeth]

also something to think about doing that will reduce the heat in the garage .

you say it is a flat roof . well if you put a post in the middle in the front and back and put a piece of pipe on it to go from front to the back . then get a tarp and atatch it to the sides of the garage and go over the pipe to the other side of the building . this will give it a peak . leave the ends open to let air pass thru . it doesn't have to be high a meter will be anuff . the sun will hit the tarp and heat it up instead of the flat roof . and if you do it neat it will look nice and will reduce the heat inside the garage ALOT . and it can be built for very low funds. i bet it would drop the temp inside the garage by 10c easy .

[Twinkletoes]

Originally posted by Win2Kuser
...I don't want to mess around with sneakernetting...
Can I offer you a pair of used pink sneakers - what size do you take ? (The...er...accessories...you'll have to arrange for yourself.)

Wouldn't your brother-in-law be prepared to look after a few of them for you ??? :ROF: :ROF: :ROF:

[Cowboybooter]

That's tough news, Win2k!

All my older boxes are still in the roof, partly due to building, mainly due to space! As tmx can attest, we live in a tiny place, space is a big issue! My latest plan is to 'donate' most of the boxes,all complete systems, to good homes, the only price being that they run the FaD client!

:)

Bob

[mondobyte]

I have somewhat of an odd situation. The electric rates in Missouri are actually going DOWN!

That said, my wife and I still believes there are opportunities for savings.

My sweetie has agreed that at least 3 of the 4 dual Pentium 200's must be replaced. The current plan is to replace them ASAP (1-2 weeks) with 3 Athlon XP 2x00 class computers. I'll re-use the CD ROM, HD, SCSI Hosts, Dual NIC cards. I'll be buying 3 or 4 identical cases, 3 new motherboards (NFORCE2), 256mb DDR400 RAM (at least for starters), processors. I'm leaning towards XP2200 or XP2400+ at this time, and, of course, CPU Heatsink/Fans.

The downside is that I will be replacing 8 processors with only 3 so my CPU duration will fall off.

The upside is that, for those computers, the electricity usage should be about half of the dual pentiums and there will be a large net gain in GHz :)

[tmx468]

CPU duration isn't a major loss if production kicks upwards! :D

4*2(200)=1600Mhz (current lot)
So 1 Athlon will crunch nice and hard for you, let alone 3! :)

[Paul W]

Whitewash the roof of the garage. :)

[serlv ( Zippy )]

I cannot afford a wife. How would I pay for the A/C to cool off 15 OCed Athlon systems, with her sucking up funds for drapes and doilies and FDS and stuff. Better to have the occasional visitor.

[mickwish]

Ah, win2k, I can definitely relate to what you are going through!! :eek: :o

Power costs still an issue here. Had to cut back from 14 PC's to the current level of 6, of which 2 don't run 24/7 (kid's bedrooms), and Blade has commandeered the one in his room. :rolleyes:

We even bought a new fridge to replace the old icy monster we had, and it only reduced the power bill by a fifth or so. :o

So the plan is to upgrade them all to Athlon XP's, but until I can save some $$$ (AUD of course :D ) it has to wait.

Good luck. Missus' don't like power bills they think are too high. I have suggested not running the hair dryer and curling tongs, but that was not met with much support. :p

Cheers
Mick

[PresterJohn]

Originally posted by mickwish
I have suggested not running the hair dryer and curling tongs, but that was not met with much support. :p

LOL...that was funny, mick. :bunny:

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I did the same thing, I replaced 2 P225's 2 K6-2 450's with a single Duron 750, Point output went up and slow machines were recycled... (garbage) kept some of the Hd's (if they were over 800Mb) and since then I've added 2 XP's @ 2.2Ghz and a P2 350... But I might put the P2 in a remote place temporarily.... I have 7 machines now, before I had 9, but I try to only keep over 1Ghz running now. (except for 2 P2 class @ 300 & 350) anything lower doesn't justify the price of hydro to run.

As Mondo said, if you need the machines, look to replace 2 for 1 higher Powered machine, it will save you money on the hydro bill and still hold a higher output.

[davidw]

More does not always mean better.

[Twinkletoes]

I've mentioned this in passing before, and it irritates me that I can't find the reference. Where, oh where, did I read that 1.8 - 2.0 GHz are the optimum in terms of power consumption ???

Anything faster, and the increase in output (in terms of crunched mollies or whatever) is not proportional to the increase in power consumption - anything over 2 Ghz requires disproportionally more power for cooling.

Can anyone think where I might have read that ? Maybe it was in a Swedish trade rag...it was probably around March/April last year (!) because I recollect deciding that I would stop at an XP2400+ when I bought "Charlie".

[mickwish]

Might have been in my previous thread bemoaning power - lots of stuff posted there. Was it here or at TIMO, though? :rolleyes:

I can't recall.

Cheers
Mick