this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
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It's way less thermally efficient though... Individual computers in people's houses running lighter workloads don't get as hot, and when they do, they don't need to stay operating for as long: they can just shut down or slow down after the heavy workload, or finish it more slowly. So they don't need as much cooling, and will produce less waste heat due to the temperature coefficient of resistance.
And honestly in areas with colder year-round climates, the increase in ambient temps from running locally might actually reduce heating bills because it's technically doing double duty of doing a job and heating the place.
Literally had mild winters where the computer running could keep a single room comfortably warm.
It’s getting cold in Canada, but playing civ 6 is my version of getting warm by the fire.
I'm gaming a lot. Can confirm, almost no heating bill, but high electricity bill
Sheesh! One unit of computing =one unit of heat. The total units of computing are the same, the concentration differs. Thermodynamics, dude!
Ignorance is not bad, it can be reversed. It's confident ignorance like yours that scares me.
Just to introduce another factor: transitioning between hot and cold introduces wear that might be worse that running warm-to-hot constantly.
I don't think the wear is that significant, unless it has a bad solder defect somewhere.