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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by acqq on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @03:52PM (#10229356)
Yes, running 5000 computers on 100% CPU instead of idle is a lot of money and a lot of electricity spent:

If these were typical desktop computers, the CPU working at 100% can use some 50 W more than the one staying idle. 5000 computers at 100 % CPU produce then the load of 250 KW, resulting in 6 MWh per day which at 10 cents per KWh costs 600 USD per day, or 220000 USD per year. Finally, 9 years that he did it make almost 2 million dollars (!) for electricity that he managed to spend.

Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by reddog on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @09:19PM (#10231025)
You can roughly double that. Thats the cost of the extra electricity needed by the ACs to offset the heat generated by the pegged PCs.