Foo - The cost of leaving Facebook Games opened

Facebook games (Zynga) have become very demanding during the last year. While their graphics seem simple and IMHO should not require vast amounts of processing power, I've observed that the opposite is quite true. I often see CPUs on fairly new computers running at over 90% because of one single web page open with a Facebook game running on it.

Power usage on a modern computer is relative to the load on the CPU. Therefore, a computer left on with a Facebook game running while use more energy than a computer left on at idle. I theorize I could measure the difference by taking note of the wattage usage displayed on the power supply. From that I could estimate the kilowatts per hour. Then using the kWh rate on my energy bill, I guess I could estimate the cost of leaving a Facebook Game opened.

I haven't make such measurements yet (I don't play Facebook games). But I will. In the meantime, I'm gonna throw a ballpark figure out there... lets say the power usage jumps 350 watts. That would be 0.35 kWh. Assuming (another ballpark figure here) a kWh rate of $10 bucks, running the game should cost about $3.50 per hour. Leaving the game opened for a whole month would be about $2,500 dollars a month?

Obviously my math went wrong somewhere. Any takers?

It's nothing like the cost of opening the Pandora's Box of FB games in the first place. Calculate the man-hours lost there.

FB? Why bother?
We have BF.

I keep a sawed off shotgun next to my monitor. If I suspect the a FB game is trying to sneak onto the screen, I just go ahead and shoot.

Facebook games are for children.

kWh are generally billed in cents, not dollars. Average in 2011, in the USA was $0.12 with a range of $0.082 to $0.29.

I think you need to spend some time googling how power is billed before doing any more math. In Alabama, you generally get billed a flat rate for single-occupancy residential billing capacity in kW and then a usage rate of kWh.

Capacity was around $5.00 per kW and usage around $0.072 per kWh. This is lower than the range up top because Alabama uses a tiered system based on building type and a single person living in a duplex occupies the lowest tier with just one small meter to the residence.

I think your power-usage guestimate is bad. Try an actual measurement with a Kill A Watt (http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html) or something similar. I think you'd find actual power usage difference between FB game and idle to be small.

I keep a sawed off shotgun next to my monitor. If I suspect the a FB game is trying to sneak onto the screen, I just go ahead and shoot.

See!
And you wonder where I get my Texican stereotype.

Rube,put down your joystick,go outside,play street hockey with the kids.

The cost of Facebook is your soul!

... but seriously, the increase in power usage is from Facebook stealing all of the info on your hard drive and selling it to everyone else.

My wife roped me into facebook to help her out on those damn games. Didn't take me long to stop playing them. Closest to games now are me playing whack a mole to all the game notifications on my Wall. Any time someone plays a new game, I gotta tell their server I don't want to see any of the crap.

I'm currently mulling over a replacement for fb, but not sure which one...

I used to play a playdom game on facebook, sucked up many hours of my life.. then they cancelled the game despite it being fairly popular, never again.

kWh are generally billed in cents, not dollars. Average in 2011, in the USA was $0.12 with a range of $0.082 to $0.29.

I think you need to spend some time googling how power is billed before doing any more math. In Alabama, you generally get billed a flat rate for single-occupancy residential billing capacity in kW and then a usage rate of kWh.

Capacity was around $5.00 per kW and usage around $0.072 per kWh. This is lower than the range up top because Alabama uses a tiered system based on building type and a single person living in a duplex occupies the lowest tier with just one small meter to the residence.

Ohhh I see... I used dollars instead of cents.... noted.

My wife roped me into facebook to help her out on those damn games. Didn't take me long to stop playing them. Closest to games now are me playing whack a mole to all the game notifications on my Wall. Any time someone plays a new game, I gotta tell their server I don't want to see any of the crap.

I'm currently mulling over a replacement for fb, but not sure which one...

Same here. Trying Google+ ATM.

Same here. Trying Google+ ATM.

I've already signed up for that after they dropped the mandatory invite to get in. Really haven't used it that much.