Watts Up? · Mar 20, 06:18 AM by Dylan Doxey
Ever wonder how much power your computer consumes? The "Watts Up?" power meter can clue you in.
With gas prices going up so dramatically in recent years, I'm beginning to develop a new sensitivity to my energy consumption habits. For example the desktop computer which I used to think of as my Ferrari among computers is now starting to feel more like a Humvee.
Last week I borrowed the "Watts Up?" from the office to see exactly where I stand.
Getting started, I plugged the unit into the wall and verified that plugging nothing in doesn't appear to consume any energy.
My desktop system is powered via an APC UPS. For this test I limited the items connected to the UPS to be:
- Two BenQ 20" monitors
- Speakers
- LaserJet 1100
- Main CPU unit which includes:
- Seven case fans
- Two CDROMs
- One Hard Drive
- One dual core AM2 processor
- One Big Water liquid cooling system
Plugging my APC UPS into the unit registered an immediate drain of 1 watt. After a few minutes it climbed to 5 watts. The energy consumption rate continued to climb minute by minute.
After about four hours the unit began to indicate some real power draw. These results suggest that after unplugging the UPS it detected a crisis and began supplying energy to my system, and continued to do so in a low-trust mode even after power had been restored. (These results are not what I had expected. I would have predicted that the UPS would draw the enough to supply the system's requirements and more to replenish the reserves drained during the apparent crisis.)
When I was ready for the real deal, I shut everything down and removed the UPS from the equation. Using just a regular ol' power strip, I reconnected all of the above mentioned equipment and fired it up again. Wow! Now that's more like what I expected. But not entirely. With a 500 watt power supply, I and a dual core processor known for running hot, and all the other stuff, I expected to see something in the neighborhood of 400+ watts consumption. And that also includes the two monitors, speakers and the printer. Interesting...
Then I shutdown the system with the OS shutdown mechanism. This reading indicates the LaserJet 1100, speakers, and the two BenQ monitors in standby mode.
Physically unplugging the LasterJet 1100 dropped my consumption by four watts. This is something I'd never thought about because I've just left that thing plugged in 24/7 for the last three years. A crude calculation: three years at four watts continuous consumption is 105.12 kilowatt hours which translates to 157.68 pounds of carbon emission. (According to the 1.5 lb per kwh proposed by the Vermont Earth Institute worksheet.)
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