I have been a long time contributor to various BOINC projects. I dont run 24/7, nowdays I run in the day only and use the power from my solar panels to make my research as clean as possible.
I saw Bitcoin early on but never wanted to divert my BOINC time. Early this year I found Gridcoin, and started to mine. Gridcoin is currently the only virtual currency that rewards users for participating in BOINC, it has an excellent core community and passionate development. I feel this has given me more focus in improving my RAC and has encouraged me to spend time on more different BOINC projects.
Please see www.gridcoin.us for more info.