Imre Vida
2017
Consumption meter software
Nowadays, people and companies are increasingly focusing on energy efficiency and environmental awareness. High percentage of the energy consumption are mostly from powering computers and connected devices at the companies using lots of computers. Measuring the consumption of every computer can be a really hard and long process using regular consumption meter hardwares. That's why I wrote a software tool called Consumption Meter what can monitor the energy usage of every single computer and it can calculate the price of the energy used.
The process of solving the problem
After defining the problem, the next step was to design the solution. As the first step I contacted people and companies who might encountered this problem, and they confirmed, that this problem is real. After that I chosed the programming language which is the most suitable for this software in my opinion, that is the C#, and then I made the first version of the program. I encountered a lot of problems during programming, because an application like that has to watch a lot of things and it must not slow down the device, nor prevent the user doing his/her job. Finding the correct formula for the calculations was a huge challenge. After several months of hard work and optimization, the program began to reliably perform its main tasks and to track the PC's consumption. At this point, the program slowed down the computer and used a high percentage of processor time, and required about 50Mb of RAM to run. Thanks to further optimizations, the current version of the program does not slow down the computer, does not affect the efficiency of working on the computer, because it is possible to run it automatically in the background. In addition, the current version of the program requires approximately 20Mb of memory and its accuracy depends on the accuracy of the settings. If the correct settings are given, the software can reach +-5% accuracy, which is the same as most traditional consumption meter hardware's accuracy.
The following table shows the data of testing the program on multiple computers, compared to an external power meter that measures the power consumption of that computer.
| Consumption measured using external power meter: | Consumption measured by the software: | |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop | 25 W | 25,1 W |
| Server | 138 W | 139 W |
| Laptop2 | 70 W | 69,8 W |
| Desktop PC | 215 W | 215,2 W |
Results achieved:
The current version of the program (after a long researching and developing process) contains the following features: The product has the ability to monitor the hardware consumption of the computer's hardware almost perfectly (shown in Table 1) after entering the correct, minimal amount of data of the the computer and after that the software can calculate value of the energy used in the given currency. This makes it possible to continuously monitor the energy consumption of a given device, and its economy, without the need of an external meter or other hardware changes. The program may also be suitable for monitoring server consumption and calculating server operating costs. The use of the program is not only useful for individuals, as companies that run multiple computers at the same time can monitor the consumption of their devices in real-time only by installing a software on them. This can help them selecting the computers ,that should be upgraded or replaced to optimize energy use. Their decision can be supported by a built-in decision support system that predicts the expected consumption of a given computer or even all the devices for specific periods based on the data measured so far. Managers and administrators of companies that use the program can track their companies total consumption on their computers or smartphones and view their weekly, monthly, and yearly statistics. The data collected by the client programs is stored in a database on an external server, and in the event of a failure, the computer saves the data itself. With this information, you can also detect energy-efficiency errors in other devices, because if your computers consumptions are low, but the amount of energy used in that month is very high, then we can clearly conclude that no IT upgrades are needed, but the other electric devices' (such as: lighting, refrigeration) energy efficiency review is recommended. Using the application does not prevent employees from working on their computer, because the program is hidden all the time, running in the background. Installing and configuring the program does not require any previous IT knowledge, as the inclosed manual describes step by step the steps to be taken. The program has low system requirements, so it does not place load on the running device and does not affect the power consumption of the device.
Further development goals:
- Warning the business manager or administrator, when the setted amount of energy is used.
- Execute a given operation when the set amount of energy is used. (e.g., shutdown, turn on power saving mode)