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How to find out how much energy your PC is using?

post #1 of 7
5/20/08 at 5:09am
Thread Starter 
Ive googled into this topic with not many answers. But ive always wanted to sit down and see approximately hoe much my PC uses per hour.......any programs that can help with this?

Im more interested in a app that could read the energy being used, as I dont mind doing the math

Thnx again

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post #2 of 7
5/20/08 at 8:19am
Hey gahz - the only way I know the accurately measure PC power consumption is to use an in-line (hardware) io/energy meter/monitor and measure energy consumption over time at the plug. There is an app you can also try, but I cannot verify it's accuracy. Use at your own risk.

Here are a few other links/articles to ponder:

Microsoft TechNet
TomsHardware

And actual hardware to consider:

Electricity Monitors
SilentPC $5 Power Meter


Edit: I think Steve plays around with this type of equipment all of the time...he may have some better suggestions.
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post #3 of 7
5/20/08 at 11:02am
You might be able to rent an in line monitor at a local tool rental place. You just plug it into the wall, then plug the pc into that, and it'll give you real time power use.
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post #4 of 7
5/20/08 at 12:19pm
P=V*I

If you have a DMM you can measure the amps and voltage for each component and add the products all together to get an overall wattage. However, a lot of devices will be difficult to measure like the CPU. You can estimate by reading the manual to see what it is rated at... it should be something like +12V

BUt there's also a device you can buy where it measures the magnetic field around your power cable, this however isn't very accurate due to loss from the load and the conversation from AC to DC.

I've never actually thought about this until now.
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post #5 of 7
5/20/08 at 4:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve@NBF View Post
P=V*I

If you have a DMM you can measure the amps and voltage for each component and add the products all together to get an overall wattage. However, a lot of devices will be difficult to measure like the CPU. You can estimate by reading the manual to see what it is rated at... it should be something like +12V

BUt there's also a device you can buy where it measures the magnetic field around your power cable, this however isn't very accurate due to loss from the load and the conversation from AC to DC.

I've never actually thought about this until now.
Woo physics!
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post #6 of 7
5/30/08 at 11:23am
I see that the asus board i have measures the power consumption on the cpu but one minute it's around 17W next minute it's around 24 and 32 W
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post #7 of 7
5/30/08 at 1:22pm
Thread Starter 
Now only to convert that to $
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