This is by far one of the most fascinating posts I have ever read here. Please do as much as you can. For fun can you also do some of the following:
Television
Toaster Oven
Lamp with 60 watt lightbulb (ya, I know it should read out 60, but just for kicks)
Phone?
Computer with USB memory drive compared to a computer without one
Cable Modem
Wireless Router
And if you have a few extra G's could you test a Quad FX system?
Yes, I bought the UPM Energy meter (similar to Kill A Watt, just a different brand) at Canadian Tire for $28 including tax, about a year ago. I have measured virtually everything in the house that is on a 15 amp service.
There are two differences between the UPM and the KAW: the UPM has non-volatile memory (if you install 2 batteries), and the KAW can read out power factor (efficiency from the wall to the consumption of whatever's being measured). The UPM does not have the power factor feature.
I have all my testing notes somewhere, but it would take too long to include results in this post. Currently, I have the UPM as the first device from the wall, then my UPS, then the tower, monitor, and two external hard drives.
I have all my testing notes somewhere, but it would take too long to include results in this post. Currently, I have the UPM as the first device from the wall, then my UPS, then the tower, monitor, and two external hard drives.
I have all my testing notes somewhere, but it would take too long to include results in this post. Currently, I have the UPM as the first device from the wall, then my UPS, then the tower, monitor, and two external hard drives.
What's your reading and system specs?
For devices connected to the UPM:
The UPS is a Tripp-Lite SU1000XL, 1000VA, 800 watts, dual conversion type where power is always being drawn from the UPS battery, and it is always being charged: consumes 35 watts
The Chaintech VFN4 AMD 3500+ consumes 12 watts when the comp is shut down via XP
The LCD (Samsung 930 MP 19 inch) consumes 2 watts when shut down by XP
So, when my systen is shut down, it consumes 49 watts.
When it is running and XP is just idling, the UPS, tower and monitor consume 160 watts on average: monitor 35, UPS 35, meaning that the tower is consuming 90 watts.
Peak consumption (according to the UPM peak consumption variable) over the last 781 hours (since I last reset it to zero) is 222 watts.
I don't normally have the external 3.5 inch USB hard drives on, but they consume 7 watts each.
My 900 watt microwave consumes nearly 1400 watts :!:
I've had a Lexa PM300-consumptionmeter since last summer.
My whole pc system is currently connected to it, including AMD64 3000+, nVidia 7800GS, 1,5Gigs ddr400, 4 IDE harddrives and IDE dvd-burner in Antec Sonata-case with 380W Truepower2,0 PSU, 17inch Viewsonic TFT and Creative 2.1 speakers.
The peak consumption has been 229 watts and currently its using 170watts just writing this. Speakers and monitor unplugged the consumption drops about 30 watts.
Im not sure how reliable the measurements are. I've noticed there is some debate going on in some finnish forums about this particular meter and its ability to correctly measure rapid current spikes.
Tech.coordinator asked about the 60w lightbulb, and guess what, it read 62 watts, close enough
Im not sure how reliable the measurements are. I've noticed there is some debate going on in some finnish forums about this particular meter and its ability to correctly measure rapid current spikes.
Tech.coordinator asked about the 60w lightbulb, and guess what, it read 62 watts, close enough
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The UPM claims 0.2% accuracy with wattage above about 30 watts, and 2% below that. This is plenty good enough for non-commercial applications. As far as I can tell, it refreshes readings every half second.
Yes, I would expect these household meters to have some difficulty reading current spikes, because they weren't designed for that. They are designed to give averages so that average current consumption can be measured over a period of time, so that the cost of electricity can be calculated. These are very different objectives from a commercial-grade tester, where the objectives are the quality and specifications of the circuit.
My household voltage reading is dead on at 119.9 + /- .8 because I had my household voltage checked by my utility company a couple years ago.
Speaking of light bulbs, I have converted to 15 watt flourescent compacts wherever I was using an incandescent. These 15 watt bulbs consume 18 watts.
A lot of electronics will still consume electricity when 'off.' Pretty sinister if you ask me. Best thing to do? Unplug everything when not in use.
As a general rule, I agree. However, in my case the hog when my system is off is the UPS (35 watts). But it is impractical for me to turn it off. If I unplug it, it screams bloody murder! The only way to shut it up is to unplug everything from it so the load on it is zero, then pull the plug.
I can live with the 35 watt consumption in return for 35 minutes run time in case of a power failure.
The Lexa is reading the line voltage as 224V and when measuring with multimeter it reads 220V, so it is slightly off anyways. Funny thing that, I thought we had 230V household voltage nowadays here in Finland. Or maybe the old multimeter is finally tossing in the towel... hmm i need to check that one...
Lots of electronics have all kinds of inverters and choppers that draw current in non-sinusoidal form, and I've been told that these cheap meters cant really read it accurately, even in average. I was referring to this earlier with the current spikes.
edit: yep it should be 230V, it used to be 220 earlier like 10 years ago, guess we are a bit slow changing things around here
Yes, I bought the UPM Energy meter (similar to Kill A Watt, just a different brand) at Canadian Tire for $28 including tax, about a year ago. I have measured virtually everything in the house that is on a 15 amp service.
There are two differences between the UPM and the KAW: the UPM has non-volatile memory (if you install 2 batteries), and the KAW can read out power factor (efficiency from the wall to the consumption of whatever's being measured). The UPM does not have the power factor feature.
I have all my testing notes somewhere, but it would take too long to include results in this post. Currently, I have the UPM as the first device from the wall, then my UPS, then the tower, monitor, and two external hard drives.
These are really fun gadgets!
-Bob
I want one. I want to test with my 3.0C, then switch it out for my 2.4A@3726 and watch with horror...what happens. :? I know that SANDRA 2004 SP2b estimates my 3.0C @ ~89w and my 2.4A @ ~125-130W. :x
Thermaltake PurePower 680W PSU
e6700 @ 3.3GHz, 1.425v vCore
8800GTX @ 645/2050
3*7200RPM IDE HDDs
1*7200RPM SATA HDD
SATA DVD±RW drive
2*80mm fan (cooling hdds)
1*40mm fan (cooling chipset)
1*110mm fan (Zalman CPU cooler)
1*40mm radial fan (cooling mosfets)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Soundblaster Audigy 1
HP LP2065 20.1" 4:3 TFT
Creative Gigaworks 5.1 speakers.
All plugged in, speakers + monitor on standby: 24W
Speakers on, monitor on standby: 49W
Idle in Windows, no CPU power management: 321W
Full Prime95 load, both cores, small FFTs: 366W
Full TAT load, both cores: 382W
3Dmark06 Return to Proxycon: 404W
Unsurprisingly, the GPU really ups the power usage.
Being in the UK, Ring main is rated @ 32A total, although I have a 13A fuse on the power strip.
Nominal voltage is reading at 245V, that means that I can hit up to 3185W before I blow the fuse in the plug
The Lexa is reading the line voltage as 224V and when measuring with multimeter it reads 220V, so it is slightly off anyways. Funny thing that, I thought we had 230V household voltage nowadays here in Finland. Or maybe the old multimeter is finally tossing in the towel... hmm i need to check that one...
Lots of electronics have all kinds of inverters and choppers that draw current in non-sinusoidal form, and I've been told that these cheap meters cant really read it accurately, even in average. I was referring to this earlier with the current spikes.
edit: yep it should be 230V, it used to be 220 earlier like 10 years ago, guess we are a bit slow changing things around here
No, thats correct.
Europe used to vary between 220V and 240V in the various countries. The UK for example was 240V±6% (225.6V-254.4V).
Then the EU rationalised all of Europe to 230V±10% (207V-253V).
As the existing ranges were all inside this new range, no supplies were ever actually changed. All that happened was that the manufacturers of appliances were forced to make devices to a 230V±10% tolerance, so that they could be sold across Europe.
Richter scale? 
...or Geiger counter?
