Wattage?

[sfbloodbrother]

Hello

I was wondering if there was a way to find out how much wattage my computer is using currently. I already built my computer, and am not looking for a calculator at all. I have a 650 Watt Power supply, but I want to know how much of the 650 watts I am using right now. Is this even possible to figure out?

 

[PiscesCloud]

In the UK you could use one of these

Plug-in Electricity Cost and Usage Calculator : Power and Energy Monitors : Maplin Electronics

I'm sure you could get something similar in the States ie with your power connectors and not the UK type

 

[sfbloodbrother]

In the UK you could use one of these

Plug-in Electricity Cost and Usage Calculator : Power and Energy Monitors : Maplin Electronics

I'm sure you could get something similar in the States ie with your power connectors and not the UK type

That sounds close to what I'm looking for. But I was hoping there would be free software for Windows that could do this. Is there not?

 

[mikedt]

I'm sure this is something that could not be done with software alone, not measuring the amount of electricity flowing through the PC. Most desktop PCs have temperature monitoring, and that's about it.

These power measuring meters can be pretty inexpensive, $15-$20 I think. I know some people use them with their fridge-freezers, to see just how much they're costing them to run.

One way you might be able to do it, without any additional purchase, every house and apartment has a watt-hour meter that belongs to the electricity company. Turn everything off except your PC, and see how fast the wheel inside the meter goes round with just the PC alone. If you do this for a couple of hours, you should be able to calculate pretty accurately just how much your PC has consumed by looking at the dials on the meter.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

I'm sure this is something that could not be done with software alone, not measuring the amount of electricity flowing through the PC. Most desktop PCs have temperature monitoring, and that's about it.

These power measuring meters can be pretty inexpensive, $15-$20 I think. I know some people use them with their fridge-freezers, to see just how much they're costing them to run.

One way you might be able to do it, without any additional purchase, every house and apartment has a watt-hour meter that belongs to the electricity company. Turn everything off except your PC, and see how fast the wheel inside the meter goes round with just the PC alone. If you do this for a couple of hours, you should be able to calculate pretty accurately just how much your PC has consumed by looking at the dials on the meter.

Is that what that thing is? I used to look at that thing, but I always thought it was for the water.

 

[dibblebill]

Some surge protectors and especially UPS have them.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Some surge protectors and especially UPS have them.

I was thinking about getting one of those when building y new computer.