How do you deal with the energy/electricity costs and running your gear?

[smatovic]

I'm fine.
Buy a MacBook Pro M1 Max and you will be fine too.

"Just buy an Apple" - I like it I have no issues with my laptop, but if going pro with developing GPGPU chess with engine-engine game generation, training neural networks, engine-engines test runs....

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Srdja

[JohnWoe]

Well I don't it makes sense to. Let's say change some PSQT value: 59 -> 60. And run 1,000,000 cutechess-cli games to see if it is +0.1 Elo stronger.

I have no idea how much my ThinkPad is using kWh. Propably 1€ / month. It's always connected to dock. I hate big desktops. Take so much space.

[Level-4-Lab]

We pay about 10 cents (CND) a KWH here in Canada, so it's not really a serious issue. In fact, I almost never turn my desktop off.

[smatovic]

Dunno if this is of interest, but at the German electricity stock exchange in Leipzig they operate with the principle "Merit Order", means even if we have ~50% cheap, renewable power at peak times the price is defined by the most costly power plants (which are currently natural gas power plants) to ensure power grid stability....

For a pro chess programmer with a basement full of hardware it seems to make sense to put solar on the roof, even at 10 cents/kWh it will pay off after 10 to 20 years, and you get grid-independence as a bonus. Meanwhile it is allowed in here to use plugin-ready solar-panels with up to 600W, you put them on your balcony for example, plug in in your home grid, and they deliver.

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Srdja

[mclane]

You can make more money by not selling the solar energy for few cents to the company that delivers you with electricity and instead store the power in big batteries and use it from there.

[Level-4-Lab]

You can make more money by not selling the solar energy for few cents to the company that delivers you with electricity and instead store the power in big batteries and use it from there.

That sounds like a great idea, except that big batteries cost big money!

I have an RV that I recently fitted with solar panels and the required electronics, solar controller, inverter, power management computer, etc. The two 12V Battleborn batteries I purchased for the system cost almost a thousand dollars each!

[smatovic]

Yes, the batteries resp. storing the power is the real issue, I like the idea to generate hydrogen with surplus power, store it, and then generate electricity again via fuel cells, we see this coming on a bigger scale, the hydrogen-technology path, maybe in some future there will be decent and reasonable systems for home users, or alike.

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Srdja

[Ozymandias]

Batteries are toxic, expensive and lose capacity over time. Not sure about hydrogen, but it sure has the potential to be a better alternative.

[jdart]

I have solar. Before getting solar, I had some months in the summer in which I had a $500 electric bill. That's mostly due to air conditioning + the six servers and a couple of other desktops I have. Now the bill is about $50.

[Michel]

Dunno if this is of interest, but at the German electricity stock exchange in Leipzig they operate with the principle "Merit Order", means even if we have ~50% cheap, renewable power at peak times the price is defined by the most costly power plants (which are currently natural gas power plants) to ensure power grid stability....


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Srdja

This is how the law of supply and demand works (a law that applies to any market). The price of a commodity is the lowest price that can satisfy demand.