Measuring power consumption of my PC?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dterrors
  • Start date Start date
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dterrors

Is there a device I can use to measure the power consumption of my PC?
Like something I plug in between the outlet and the cable that shows me
watts or whatever.
 
Al Dykes said:
Look for the "Kill-A-Watt" (about $30). Watts & VA and other things.
Click to expand...

When the waveform of the current is not sinusoidal, as is the case
for a switching power supply without power factor correction,
the Kill-A-Watt is not accurate. You need a waveform integrating
watt meter such as the "Watts Up".

-- Bob Day
 
When the waveform of the current is not sinusoidal, as is the case
for a switching power supply without power factor correction,
the Kill-A-Watt is not accurate. You need a waveform integrating
watt meter such as the "Watts Up".

-- Bob Day
Click to expand...


The Kill-A-Watt reports VA. Are you saying that it is seriously
flawed? 5% or 10% accuracy is fine for what we use it for.

ISTR that power factor, itself, is not the problem in measuring and
calculating VA, it's measuring *anything* with the waveform is not
sinusoidal. Yes. I expect that a cheap switcher falls into that
catagory.
 
When the waveform of the current is not sinusoidal, as is the case
for a switching power supply without power factor correction,
the Kill-A-Watt is not accurate. You need a waveform integrating
watt meter such as the "Watts Up".

-- Bob Day
Click to expand...


uhhhhh ...the kill-a-watt is measuring input voltage/amperage. if that is
not sinusoidal, the LAST thing you would be worried about is trying to
measure the power consumption of a pc. :) -Dave
 
Al Dykes said:
The Kill-A-Watt reports VA. Are you saying that it is seriously
flawed? 5% or 10% accuracy is fine for what we use it for.

ISTR that power factor, itself, is not the problem in measuring and
calculating VA, it's measuring *anything* with the waveform is not
sinusoidal. Yes. I expect that a cheap switcher falls into that
catagory.
Click to expand...

Here's the current waveform of a switching power
supply that doesn't have power factor correction:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3psh8/image001.jpg

I doubt whether the Kill-A-Watt is anywhere near accurate.

-- Bob Day
 
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BuySmartShopping said:
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Click to expand...

http://www.cari.net/acceptable-use-policy.html

"The following activities are expressly prohibited, and may result in
account suspension or termination: ...
Making Usenet postings which advertise a Web site, e-mail account, or other
service provided by or through Cari.net, to any newsgroup whose charter does
not specifically allow such advertisements...
Harrassment, whether through content, frequency, or size of e-mail or Usenet
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Tracing route to buysmartshopping.com [216.75.17.24]

over a maximum of 30 hops:
(snip)

whois for 216.75.17.24 :
OrgName: California Regional Intranet, Inc.
OrgID: CALI
Address: 8929A COMPLEX DRIVE
City: SAN DIEGO
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 92123
Country: US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.cari.net:4321

NetRange: 216.75.0.0 - 216.75.63.255
CIDR: 216.75.0.0/18
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Parent: NET-216-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.ASPADMIN.COM
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Comment:
RegDate: 2005-09-07
Updated: 2006-02-01

RTechHandle: IC63-ARIN
RTechName: System Administration
RTechPhone: +1-858-974-5080
RTechEmail: sysadmin (guess) cari.net <-----this line slightly
altered

OrgTechHandle: SYSAD5-ARIN
OrgTechName: sysadmin
OrgTechPhone: +1-858-974-5080
OrgTechEmail: sysadmin (guess) cari.net <-----this line slightly
altered

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-01-05 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
 
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Click to expand...


Please someone, track down this barrel of monkey-spunk
and pull off his nuts with a cheap pair of Chinese pliers
(after purchasing these through his catalog).
 
Bob said:
When the waveform of the current is not sinusoidal, as is the case
for a switching power supply without power factor correction,
the Kill-A-Watt is not accurate. You need a waveform integrating
watt meter such as the "Watts Up".

-- Bob Day
Click to expand...

In this case, is the measurement not being made on the clean side of
the PSU? On the supply side?
 
Jim said:
In this case, is the measurement not being made on the clean side of
the PSU? On the supply side?
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here, but here is a picture
of the waveform of the current between the mains (wall socket) and
the power supply of a PC that has a switching power supply without
power factor correction.

http://mysite.verizon.net:80/vze3psh8/image001.jpg

Inexpensive non-integrating watt meters require that the current and
voltage waveforms both be sinusoidal in order for the values they
display to be correct. For a non PFC switching power supply, the
input voltage waveform is sinusoidal (for normal AC), but the current
waveform is far from sinusoidal, as the link above shows.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
Bob said:
I'm not quite sure what you're asking here, but here is a picture
of the waveform of the current between the mains (wall socket) and
the power supply of a PC that has a switching power supply without
power factor correction.

http://mysite.verizon.net:80/vze3psh8/image001.jpg

Inexpensive non-integrating watt meters require that the current and
voltage waveforms both be sinusoidal in order for the values they
display to be correct. For a non PFC switching power supply, the
input voltage waveform is sinusoidal (for normal AC), but the current
waveform is far from sinusoidal, as the link above shows.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
Click to expand...

Doesn't the Seasonic Power Angel take this into account as well. After
all, it purports to measure PF.
 
Doesn't the Seasonic Power Angel take this into account as well. After
all, it purports to measure PF.
Click to expand...


PF for sinusoidal waveform is easy. The non-sinusoidal load of a
cheap PSU is decidely not.
 
Jim said:
Doesn't the Seasonic Power Angel take this into account as well. After
all, it purports to measure PF.
Click to expand...

I'll leave an explanation of power factor to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor

But the bottom line is that for sinusoidal inputs, inexpensive watt meters,
such as the Kill-A-Watt can compute the power factor correctly, but
for non-sinusoidal inputs they cannot. I don't know anything about the
Seasonic Power Angel.

-- Bob Day
 
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