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Measuring Power Consumption?
rhadc asks: "Like many Slashdotters I have a pet network, spare parts around, and a number of configuration options. Unfortunately, I pay a power bill. I'd like to know how much power I'm using and how to optimize my numbers, but I don't know of any cheap way to find out. Would a 486 laptop be a better firewall than a 486 clone + UPS? Just how long will system X and system y with monitor z last on my my cheap UPS? Does anyone have insight into measuring this stuff?" For this, you can add up wattages on each device, multiply by some arbitrary "fudge rate" for local conditions, and get an approximate rate; or if you are electrically inclined, maybe you'd grab for the nearest ammeter and rig up a way to read what the line is drawing; but is there some device that could simply plug in between your UPS/Computer/Power Strip and the outlet and tell you? If not, how difficult would one be to build?
but is there some device that could simply plug in between your UPS/Computer/Power Strip and the outlet and tell you? If not, how difficult would one be to build?
Yes. Its called an AC Watt Meter. You wrap the coil around any AC cable, and it'll tell you the amount of power drawn in watts....
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
Most decent APC UPS's will give you a power consumption figure if you use their UPS managment software (which is free for Linux). http://www.apcc.com/products/management/pcp_linux. cfm. Or you could get a DMM and go a little ad hoc work yourself (don't know how electronically inclined you are, I would have to break out some college notes myself).