In view of this thread I'm going to keep my PC running at full whack 24 hrs a day and burn as much petrol in my bike as I possibly can.😀 Modi in India boasted in his election bid that he'd managed to get Indian coal production above 1 billion tons a year and promised to double it. AND YOU WANT ME to take shorter flights on my PC?????😂

1 hour ago, Farlis said:

That's the big fallacy of this argument. It's also used on the national level: "We only cripple our economy and reduce our standard of living, but our efforts to reduce the carbon footprint are but a drop in a puddle".

And because everyone thinks this way, no one does anything. 

Let's get real pessimistic. Let's say all of the 5 million personal computers in the US are top-end gaming rigs running MSFS at full power for 12 hours per day. Let's even be ridiculously unrealistic  and assume they're drawing 1,000W (they're not - a 1000W power supply never actually pulls 1,000W from the wall).

If that were happening, the total energy use of personal computers in the US would be equivalent to the total energy use of 63 superyachts. There are more than 5,300 superyachts in the world. And only considering superyachts means we're not thinking about private jets or 20,000 square foot mansions or, now, rocket ships and all the support infrastructure for them.

It's still a drop in the bucket that doesn't even register on the scale of the power they're using.

The scam is that they've got us running around upgrading our air conditioners for higher efficiency and sorting recycling while they're belching out orders of magnitude more pollution and sucking down orders of magnitude more energy than we will ever use.

Again, if you want to solve the environmental problem, go after the people who are breaking it.

 

Not sure if the OP (cepact) is serious or not with this thread, but...he can rest assured we're using a FRACTION of a FRACTION of energy that real flying uses.

1 hour ago, tpete61 said:

Only on AvSim 🙂

No, there was a thread like this in the Official forums a few weeks ago.

Turn off your computer! Fly paper airplanes! Wood is renewable!

I don't think the point is how much energy you consume doing long hauls on your PC compared to super yachts or a country's yearly consumption. I think the point here is that by leaving the PC running for hours on end, you consume a lot of energy relative to your own footprint as an individual for virtually no reason.

The PC is running for 8 hours in cruise. You're not even there, so you don't get any benefit out of this. Effective simming time at the end of the flight is equal to a 1 hour flight. But you consumed energy for 9 hours, generated a lot of heat, which in OP's case is cooled down by turning on the air conditioning, which he wouldn't have to do if he didn't leave the PC running for 8+ hours in the first place. You end up with a lot of energy consumed relative to your own footprint for next to nothing.

Edited June 28, 20241 yr by threexgreen

If I was mod, this would be moved to Hangar Chat. 

5 hours ago, GCBraun said:

Non-sense is criticizing what others decide to do with their simulated flights. Personally, I sometimes use time compression and sometimes I don't. Sitting at a computer for 12 hours just to monitor the autopilot is not something I'm willing to do. Nevertheless, I do want to experience flight-deck preparation, take-off, climb, approach, and landing with heavy aircraft in a long-haul scenario, so time compression is a completely legitimate thing to do. It's also fully supported by PMDG with their auto-cruise functionality.

The "others" are free to fry their pc becoming roasted mummies. But the real points are energy consuming and the lack of realism due to the time compression. Sometimes it's funny to fly an EGLL/KSFO, the best thing is starting at night in real time and real weather, and then go to sleep letting the plane flying for you, and checking the flight when your awake, I did that in the past and it was funny, but 15/20 years ago there was much less energy and heat to dissipate.

Crank it up !

3 hours ago, G MIDY said:

There are guys out there literally burning 1000's of GPU's on max to mine a non-physical pointless currency.

 

So pointless that one virtual coin is worth 50k

 

So pointless... 😉

800 watts on the roof and 600ahrs lithium power my hobby and RV just fine.  Havn't paid an electric bill in many years.

sp

27 minutes ago, Farlis said:

So pointless that one virtual coin is worth 50k

From time to time, yes. It's also been known to lose 80% of its value almost instantly. As investments go, Crypto is on the order of a casino. As "mined" wealth goes, crypto is an ultra energy scam because all that energy isn't employing actual humans like a precious metals mine does.

Either way, crypto's energy use is soon to become negligible compared to large language model energy use. One ChatGPT query can hoover up 36 kilojoules.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, cepact said:

An 8 hour flight with the PMDG 777 means my PC is running hot for 8 hours straight. At the same time I have to turn on the air conditioner to prevent my PC warming my room. I feel guilty to do this just to see pixels moving pretending to fly a plane, it doesn't feel right.

Depending on your hardware your PC is using around 600 watts and combined with the need to run A/C it's a lot.  I mean if you had say 8 or 10 100 watt incandescent bulbs of old on in your horse you'd definitely be feeling guilty or what have you but the PC is easy to ignore its energy footprint.   My rationalization is that it's a lot less than many other hobbies people do.

Oh the humanity!

Awesome thread! Can’t remember last time I learned this much random trivia (some of it actually very intriguing - I’m being serious) in so little time. 

Now, how many lightbulbs can fit in an average size horse? 🐴 💡 Sorry @Noel, couldn’t resist.