Many of us may have an old, old computer around – did you know that you can use it as a small heater this winter, while potentially making a difference in public health and science?
The Folding@Home project is one way to run computation problems that are useful to science. Remember the now defunct computing-for-covid DO project? This is an older and similar project, and one that can serve a dual purpose in the winter.
One way to more efficiently and effectively heat persons during winter is to have heat near the person rather than heating all the air in a house or large warehouse. In other words, in some cases a heat blanket or a space heater may keep you toasty warm much better (and more efficiently) compared to running a large furnace set to 74 degrees. Some people swap to incandescent light bulbs during the winter with a similar line of reasoning, it will generate heat where people are working and living.
As you may have noted by accident, an old laptop or desktop can output a good little bit of heat from the vents and when you set the cpu to high usage! With Folding@home you can serve a dual purpose with your computer hardware that’s just sitting in the corner! 🙂