Re: Re: Electricty Usage/Costs (Again)

["David Gumbrell" <david.gumbrell@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm measuring power probably in the same way as everyone else, I
suspect  -
I've got one (well two actually) of those power meters you plug into a
single socket - they look a bit like timer switches. Maplin do them.

In theory you could do something like only power-up the Cortex PC when
there
is someone in the house ... but as you say, what of burglar/CCTV and also
the inconvenience of the boot-up time before stuff starts to work and
there's also some challenges with getting a clean shutdown.

The power supply to the Idranet is wired into a fixed outlet so not so easy
to measure - I think the actual network is consuming about 640mA at
14.5V(so nominal 10W for a total of 45 modules) according to the
intelligent
power supply unit, probably some more losses in the SMPS.

Since there seems to be a baseload just to have a PC switched on, the
trade-off between 0 CPU load and max CPU load consumption needs thinking
about - this is why I am wondering about virtualisation, so that I have one
super-server with Cortex, Slimserver and  maybe anything else like
Asterisk,
media server etc. In fact Cortex supports VOIP to some degree now, so I
should look into that before going Asterisk. There's going to be issues
with
PCI/PCI-X loading as well to consider.

So I'm planning at looking hard at both the Intel and AMD processors and
both base power dissipation and full load dissipation. Although Core Duo is
getting a lot of press for reduced power consumption, I've also seen some
reports that the AMD processors have better work done/power consumed
performance, but need to dig deeper on that.

The saving on lighting depends on habits and install. If you have a
situation (eg children) when at least one normal 60W bulb is on
unnecessarily somewhere in the house on average then there could be a
saving. But if you've changed to all CFLs the situation will be different.

I think a far bigger saving will come from turning off as many appliances
as
possible when not required and using the automation to do this and also
switch back on in an intelligent manner (ie based on house occupancy, room
occupancy, time of day, remote control usage or some combination of the
above) . Some people have already mentioned using X-10 modules, but I have
also included Idratek controlled power outlets in some strategic places
since they switch more quickly, more reliably and more quietly. I may
revise
my study wiring though, since that has the highest concentration of
wall-warts etc and doesn't have the Idratek controlled sockets.

Cheers,

David



On 9/21/06, Semi Jon <semi.jon@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>   The standby figures are worrying. I had wondered whether HA light
> switching
> to save money on wasted electricity was a bit of a red herring, this
seems
> to confirm it if running a PC 24/7.
>
> David,
>
> I'd be interested in the consumption of Idratek gear without Cortex.
>
> Presumably then you could have a basic level of services provided and
then
> power-up Cortex on event or timer. I guess this doesn't work if you
are
> using it for Secuirty video capture.
>
> BTW how did you measure the power drain? Ammeter somehow or something
more
> sophisticated?
>
> Jon
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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