IBM's Roadrunner Energy Consumption

[peripatein]

Hello,

I am to find this supercomputer's energy consumption in GW/h a year.
I have found its consumption per hour to be 8.4402 GW/h.
How do I find the value per hour a year? Is it by simple multiplication by number of hrs a year (which doesn't seem right to me)?
Please advise.

 

[CWatters]

I have found its consumption per hour to be 8.4402 GW/h

In other words it's power consumption is 8.4402 GW.

So yes, just multiply 8.4402 GW by the the number of hours in a year.

 

[peripatein]

But wouldn't that be its power consumption a year, and not 'per hour a year?'

 

[RTW69]

Are you sure you didn't find the computers energy consumption in Gigawatts and you are looking for gigawatt*hours/year?

 

[peripatein]

I am quite positive. That value was calculated based on data gleaned from the Wikipedia article. You may double check; I could have made a mistake. But does the computer work all year round? Do any other variables change throughout the year? It seems simply multiplying it by 24*365 will be over simplifying it. Yet I could myself be wrong. Any advice?

 

[RTW69]

"A modern supercomputer usually consumes between 4 and 6 megawatts—enough electricity to supply something like 5000 homes."

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/nextgeneration-supercomputers/0

5x 10^6 watts * 24 hr/ day* 365 days/yr =43.8 gigawatt*hr/yr

 

[CWatters]

So yes, just multiply 8.4402 GW by the the number of hours in a year.

But wouldn't that be its power consumption a year...

No. Energy consumption per year...

Remember Power = Energy/Time

so

Power(GW) * Time(H) = Energy(GWH)

or in SI units...

Power(in Watts) * Time(in Seconds) = Energy(Joules)

 

[peripatein]

I am slightly confused. Which should it be then? And how do I calculate the hourly consumption a year?

 

[CWatters]

I am slightly confused. Which should it be then? And how do I calculate the hourly consumption a year?

Best avoid the expression "hourly consumption a year". If you want the know how much energy a super computer uses per year in "gigawatt hours" then RTW69 has the right answer...

"A modern supercomputer usually consumes between 4 and 6 megawatts—enough electricity to supply something like 5000 homes."

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/nextgeneration-supercomputers/0

5x 10^6 watts * 24 hr/ day* 365 days/yr =43.8 gigawatt*hr/yr

 

[peripatein]

Thanks a lot!