Costly Folding on a Playstation 3

We talked a couple years back about the hidden cost of participating in distributed computing projects like SETI@home. One of the problems with the calculations is that energy costs vary from place to place, and season to season, and various other factors are involved. Energy is gradually getting more expensive, but processors are getting more efficient, so in fairness it may warrant another look, and it may be that there are ways that home users can contribute here without spending an arm and a leg.

But the subject came up again about a year ago in a different way. Sony decided to include Folding@Home software in its Playstation 3 gaming console, and of course users immediately leapt on the opportunity to do something nice with their "spare", "unused" CPU cycles.

But as the article below attests, the Playstation 3 consumes a whopping 200 WATTS when folding. Yowsa!

That could cost a typical user over $7 per month! So much for free, spare cycles! And nobody's telling PS3 users about this, they're having to find it out on their own. That's really unfortunate, IMO.

The article below shows some simple calculations on this, but actually views that as a bargain. To each his own, I guess. I certainly don't object if people WANT to do this, but the costs should be made more apparent to unsuspecting PS3 buyers, at least.

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