Imagine getting paid just for leaving your laptop plugged in!

At GreenCloud, we’re building a world where your everyday devices — laptops, phones, even TVs — can earn money while helping the planet by taking on tasks that would normally be handled by traditional data centers.

In this post I’m going to share how it works and why it’s a win-win for you and the environment.

🔌 Your Devices Already Use Power — Let’s Make It Count

We’ve been testing devices like the Apple M1 MacBook, which is already known for its impressive power efficiency — typically drawing just 10–20 watts during normal use.

But here’s the exciting part: when GreenCloud runs on your MacBook, it doesn’t need the screen or any of the energy-hungry components used for visual tasks.

That means the power usage can drop even further.

To accurately understand how much energy is consumed while running GreenCloud tasks, we needed a reliable way to measure power usage in real time. That’s why we use a Shelly smart power plug — it allows us to track exactly how much electricity a device is drawing while GreenCloud is active.

With the screen off and no user interaction, background processing consumes far less power than typical everyday tasks like video playback or gaming.

On average:

• Laptops use 10–30W (MacBooks lean toward the lower end)
• Phones use 2–6W while active (less if idle and charging)
• Smart TVs can be used during idle time, drawing around 30–80W (depending on screen size and model)
• PlayStation 5 can draw 50–220W depending on activity (idle to active gameplay)
• Xbox Series X typically draws 45–200W depending on usage

Understanding the power consumption of different devices is only part of the story. To work out the real-world impact — both environmentally and financially — we also need to consider when and how that electricity is being used. That’s where your energy tariff comes in.

⚡ The Tariff Talk — What Does This Cost You?

In the UK, energy tariffs vary, and many people are now on variable rates or time-of-use tariffs like Octopus Agile or Economy 7. Here’s how that plays out:

• Standard tariff (typical): ~28p per kWh
• Off-peak Agile tariff: as low as 7–12p per kWh
• Solar-powered home: potentially free or surplus energy during the day

Let’s do the math for a laptop running 10W for 8 hours a day:

• 10W × 8 hrs = 80Wh = 0.08kWh
• Cost per day: 0.08kWh × 0.28p ≈ 2.24p
• Monthly cost: ≈ £0.67
• Even cheaper if you’re using off-peak or solar.

That means the cost of powering a device for GreenCloud tasks is just pennies per day — or under a pound a month. When you compare that with the payments we offer — typically £5–£10/month per device — it’s easy to see how the economics start to work in your favour.

While our platform works with any electricity source, we prioritise devices powered by clean energy — whether that’s rooftop solar, wind, or other low-carbon sources.

Looking ahead, we envision working directly with energy suppliers to create special tariffs that reward people for participating. These incentives could help reduce your monthly bill or even result in direct payments for the compute power your devices contribute — creating a virtuous cycle of clean, paid participation.

🌍 Unlocking the World’s Untapped Compute Power

Across the globe, billions of devices spend significant portions of their time idle, representing a vast reservoir of untapped computational potential.

While most global estimates focus on data center-class GPUs and TPUs — estimated at approximately 3.98 × 10²¹ FLOPS in 2023 (wiki.aiimpacts.org) — the billions of consumer devices worldwide represent a parallel, underutilized computing layer. These devices often sit idle but remain powered and capable of contributing to distributed computing platforms like GreenCloud.

By harnessing this residual compute power, GreenCloud can transform everyday electronics into contributors to global computational tasks, offering both environmental benefits and financial incentives to users.

🌱 Sustainable and Rewarding

This is about distributed, carbon-free computing. Your unused device time becomes part of our global network, helping researchers, creators, and developers — all without spinning up a giant data center.