[LINK] Energy Consumption of a Second Life Avatar

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

<http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/avatars_consume.php> <snip>

He quotes Philip Rosedale, the head of Linden Lab, the company behind the 
Second Life virtual world: "We're running at full power all the time, so 
we consume an enormous amount of electrical power in co-location 
facilities [where they house their 4,000 server computers] ... We're 
running out of power for the square feet of rack space that we've got 
machines in. We can't for example use [blade] servers right now because 
they would simply require more electricity than you could get for the 
floor space they occupy."

Walsh notes that on average there are between 10,000 and 15,000 avatars 
in Second Life at any given time, a number that's growing rapidly. He 
wonders: "How much power do 15,000 human beings consume daily compared to 
15,000 avatars?" Hmm. That's an interesting question. 

So let's do the math.

If there are on average between 10,000 and 15,000 avatars "living" in 
Second Life at any point, that means the world has a population of about 
12,500. Supporting those 12,500 avatars requires 4,000 servers as well as 
the 12,500 PCs the avatars' physical alter egos are using.

Conservatively, a PC consumes 120 watts and a server consumes 200 watts. 
Throw in another 50 watts per server for data-center air conditioning. 
So, on a daily basis, overall Second Life power consumption equals:

(4,000 x 250 x 24) + (12,500 x 120 x 24) = 60,000,000 watt-hours or 
60,000 kilowatt-hours

Per capita, that's:

60,000 / 12,500 = 4.8 kWh

Which, annualized, gives us 1,752 kWh. So an avatar consumes 1,752 kWh 
per year. By comparison, the average human, on a worldwide basis, 
consumes 2,436 kWh per year. 

So there you have it: an avatar consumes a bit less energy than a real 
person, though they're in the same ballpark.

Now, if we limit the comparison to developed countries, where per-capita 
energy consumption is 7,702 kWh a year, the avatars appear considerably 
less energy hungry than the humans. But if we look at developing 
countries, where per-capita consumption is 1,015 kWh, we find that 
avatars burn through considerably more electricity than people do.

--
Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria,
Australia

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