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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Temperature Controlled BOINC? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 23
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kopperdrake
Cruncher Joined: Jul 10, 2013 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I don't know if anyone has come up with a solution already, but I would love to either see this feature, or know how I could accomplish this.
----------------------------------------I work from a small outbuilding, where my three multi-core computers and I live during the day. It has no heating, but is insulated to the hilt, and when all three PCs are running, especially if they're rendering, the room gets niec and snug. However, when they're turned off at night, and temperatures drop to near and below freezing in the winter, the room gets cold, and take several hours to warm back up the next day. I used to use an old oil-filled radiator to heat the room up quickly in the mornings, but hate the idea of wasted electricity. Once I'd discovered WCG and BOINC, the idea struck me that the computers, whilst carrying out their calculations on BOINC, keep the room at a decent temperature overnight, ready for me to start work the next morning. So I get a toasty room, the PCs are working towards something worthwhile, and I don't just waste the electricity on an oil-filled radiator! However, when the temperture warms up, the room gets too hot, and I end up opening windows, wasting energy. I would love to know if there's a way I could launch and exit BOINC, based on outside temperature. Ideally it would be via the room's ambient temperature and some type of thermometer attached by USB, but it could still serve well by plugging into a website that gives you the outdoor temperature for your area. So this way the PC would be acting as a thermostat, and the PC, via the energy used to work on BOINC's calculations, would be my radiator :) Any ideas? [Edit 1 times, last edit by kopperdrake at Dec 1, 2014 3:47:42 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I do not know anything but in the meantime why not run just two or one of them overnight?
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The secret password is 'TThrottle', for boinc on windows! The case internal temperature is in part a consequence too of the room temperature feedback, how much heat can be dissipated out of the computer, then sucked back in via the cooling inlets. Set how hot or cool your computers may run and you will also lower the temperature of the room, and crunch harder at night.
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kopperdrake
Cruncher Joined: Jul 10, 2013 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thank you for the quick answers! That's what I do now Scribe, but I just wanted to automate it if possible.
lavalflow - that sounds like just the ticket! I'll have a look to see if I have a spare 2-pin temperature connector on my motherboard in which case I could buy a sensor and even dangle it, unceremoniously, out of the case :) I'll have a shufty at TThrottle and see if that'll do the trick - thanks! I'll post back if it works!  |
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noderaser
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jun 6, 2006 Post Count: 297 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Tthrottle with an external temperature probe would probably be your best bet. It's been a long time since I've used the software, so unfortunately I don't have any pointers for you.
----------------------------------------Although I do have a number of computers around the house that crunch for BOINC, I've never really considered them a serious heating source--and only one of them is left on 24/7. It would be interesting if you could collect some data on how well your BOINC "furnace" works; indoor temperature versus outdoor and energy usage, etc. I think your setup could be ideal for collecting that kind of data since you're in a small space. This was something discussed over at the official BOINC forums, if you'd like to share your setup I'm sure people would be interested to hear about it. [url]http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=9638[/url] |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3103 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I haven't been using the TThrotle...but from my experience with FanSpeed, if you throttle the case temp. (if your MBO has that sensor) to 35-37°C in 40m3 room it will give you about 21°C...mine thermostat valve in the room almost never opens, with my 5 desktops & 2 laptops running 24/7...
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kopperdrake
Cruncher Joined: Jul 10, 2013 Post Count: 3 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thanks chaps. For the time-being, I'm going to see if I can reply on my internal motherboard temp sensors - the GPU isn't used at all by BOINC, and it runs at 31C whilst the ambient temperature is 25C. This is with three PCs running and the room left for half an hour (that's how quickly it can heat up).
I'm going to leave all three PCs running overnight and take a measurement first thing in the morning - I'll get a good idea how the ambient temperature is effecting the GPU sensor then - I'm theorising that it'll be somewhere between the current ambient and current GPU level where the GPU temperature starts to rise - at the moment the cooling effect of the fans blowing 25.5C ambient air over the GPU is enough to keep it stable at 31C. As that rises then it's sure to rise, but I imagine it would be slightly in advance as the cooling air is now hotter, so the flow won't be enough. We'll see in the morning. Thanks for the link Noderaser - I'm reading some sites saying you can add a 2-pin sensor to various parts of the motherboard and/or components, and others saying it's not possible. Whether Tthrottle will recognise any others I don't know. I'll check that thread out to see if anyone can tell me more :) |
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Composer
Cruncher Joined: May 28, 2014 Post Count: 29 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Im no expert on coding, Iv only done anything serious with arduino, but perhaps there is a way you could have a usb thermometer that, above a certain temperature, would instruct the computer to open some small and unobtrusive program until the temperature fell below the threshold. You could then put this program on the list of "exclusive applications" in the costom settings in BOINC manager. Probably an impractical and very round-a-bout way of doing that, but just an idea.
I actually have thought of using the "BOINC funace" idea before. at one point I had 3 computers in my room running more or less around the clock, two of them being older and hotter, and noticed that even in late fall I was opening my window to cool off the room. At some point I decided to try closing the heat vent and use the computers to heat the room. It works to some extent, and the vent doesnt form an airtight seal anyway, so the two together actually worked reasonably well. Although old desktops cant possibly be an efficient way to supplement a rooms heating system, I figured that if the electricity were being used anyway, it may as well be used for two things at once. |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3103 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi guys, bringing this topic from the depths...
----------------------------------------Why? Recently I've put TThrottle on all laptops on which WCG is crunching (mom's, dad's, 4 or mine's, etc.). All my desktops work on 100%, except an old one...that one needs TThrottle. So I've put 7.30 version for WinXP on that computer...but the file cputemperature.sys crashes my computer every time I start the TThrotle. Has anyone had similar problem? :/ |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The download page says 7.30 is the last working on that deprecated platform. Think you would have to ask over at eFMer's forum to reach participants of other projects too.
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