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I've never done this, so take my response with a cup of salt, but it's worth mentioning that the big guys with scalable server resources (e.g., Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) are very heavily optimized/efficient, and running on grids with dirt cheap electricity.
Unless you're renting for a very niche purpose, I'd be shocked if you could break anywhere close to even at residential electricity rates on consumer gear.
Especially since in the summer every watt you use has to be cooled with your AC. In the winter the temp is on your side a little, but still probably going to be hard to break even.
If you use electric heating, then the use of electricity for computation is basically free in winter, no?
Purely electric heating is pretty rare I'd think. Most will be heat pump which is wayyy more efficient than an electric heater
You can donate the time to science:
I've been doing this for severl years without any issues. Currently chugging along in a docker instance on my headless linux server, and I've found it runs well on most any OS.
I do this in winter, warms my room a little while doing (what I think is) good.
I donated my CPU time during COVID pandemic.
I saw there is LTT pool also donating theirs.
Though I don't know how much benefit, it makes me feel great.
If you're running the Folding@Home project through it, it might be worth looking at the Banano project. It runs the F@H program in the same way, but using credentials that they give you, and you get Banano as a reward.
On the one hand it's a cryptocurrency, so take it with a pinch of salt, but on the other hand you get it for doing what you're already doing.
Are you competing with people that live in countries/places that make it exceptionally cheaper to operate in? If so, seems like any profit margins would be slim or in the negatives.
Can possibly “donate” it to public projects.
This may be true, but filling up on electricity will get you probably hundreds of miles less than filling up gasoline at this point.