Folding at Home

[anappleadaykeeps]

My 14 yr old DS has this running overnight every night on his computer.

As he described it, it seems quite an interesting project, but I had a few questions (which he had dismissed as not a problem!) which I wanted to just run past Mumsnet for advice/confirmation:

Is it ok for a gaming computer to be running (at full speed?) 24/7? It seems quite hot to the touch, particularly where DS has it pushed up next to the wall on his desk.

Is Folding at Home a 'good' project to be involved with?

What are all the credits for? Do they link into a cryptic currency (Bitcoin?) or how do they work?

Is there anything else I should know about?

How much is this likely to be costing me in extra electricity?

It says it can cause some computers to overheat.

You presumably don’t really want a potentially overheating computer in your house at night when everyone’s asleep in case it actually goes on fire.

But I’m no expert. Hopefully one will be along shortly. Or someone from the fire service who knows about house fires and tech overheating.