Power usage monitoring

Fanaticjam · 18 Jun 2019 at 23:48

Hi all,

Wasn't sure if there was a better place to put this, sorry if there is!

Recently got stung by some massive electricity bills and wanted to set up monitoring for the power used by my PC setup.

If anyone has recommendations how to go about this that'd be grand. I'm assuming best bet is to grab a socket meter, but I have no experience dealing with this!

Cheers

ninezerofive · 19 Jun 2019 at 00:18

You could always buy one of these

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...-platinum-modular-power-supply-ca-058-as.html

ninezerofive · 19 Jun 2019 at 00:22

Btw, my system idles at around 80w, but recently I saw that it idles at 180w. So I started scanning for all know viruses and stuff, turns out it was a miner. Antivirus couldn't catch it but malwerbytes removed it.

labcoattech · 19 Jun 2019 at 10:20

ninezerofive said:
Btw, my system idles at around 80w, but recently I saw that it idles at 180w. So I started scanning for all know viruses and stuff, turns out it was a miner. Antivirus couldn't catch it but malwerbytes removed it.

Well spotted, were you able to find out how the miner got onto your PC.

pastymuncher · 19 Jun 2019 at 10:39

A plug in power monitor is what you need plus you can use it on everything electric around the house (it's quite addictive finding out what everything consumes

). One of these will do the trick but you can get them cheaper on Ebay and Amazon (wasn't sure if they would be classed as competitors so I didn't link to them).

labcoattech · 19 Jun 2019 at 11:24

Would love to know if it's possible to get a smart power meter that you can monitor via an app?

GeordieStew · 19 Jun 2019 at 11:55

TP Link HS110 is what I use.

Fanaticjam · 19 Jun 2019 at 12:08

pastymuncher said:
A plug in power monitor is what you need plus you can use it on everything electric around the house (it's quite addictive finding out what everything consumes ). One of these will do the trick but you can get them cheaper on Ebay and Amazon (wasn't sure if they would be classed as competitors so I didn't link to them).

Thanks, any idea how much they can handle? I guess if its stable through one socket it should be fine but mildly wary!

Also yeah, pretty sure they get removed

ninezerofive said:
You could always buy one of these

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...-platinum-modular-power-supply-ca-058-as.html

That's neat, however want to include the monitors + other usage too, have 3 monitors and a hifi for the sound etc.

I'm mostly sure the PC isn't the actual issue, but am interested in how much power it is actually drawing, and will help if I can show it isn't the issue.

ninezerofive said:
Btw, my system idles at around 80w, but recently I saw that it idles at 180w. So I started scanning for all know viruses and stuff, turns out it was a miner. Antivirus couldn't catch it but malwerbytes removed it.

Did you not see any nefarious programs running/cpu usage? I should probably run a virus scan.

I noticed geforce exp was doing this to my cpu while idle (bump is where I swapped to app to kill it)

james.miller · 19 Jun 2019 at 12:13

Well, what do you mean by a "massive bill" ?

ninezerofive · 19 Jun 2019 at 12:19

Fanaticjam said:
Did you not see any nefarious programs running/cpu usage? I should probably run a virus scan.

I noticed geforce exp was doing this to my cpu while idle (bump is where I swapped to app to kill it)

Yea you would think. The thing is that several virus scanners didn't find anything. And they are programmed smart now : as soon as you open task manager - they stop ! And only reactivate if you close the task manager and let it idle for few.

That's the world we live in now.

pastymuncher · 19 Jun 2019 at 19:15

Fanaticjam said:
Thanks, any idea how much they can handle? I guess if its stable through one socket it should be fine but mildly wary!

I have had over 3000w through mine and it still works. That was testing the power draw for one of these electric panel radiators that we were forced to be the guinea pigs for. You haven't seen a crazy electric bill until you have had your house heated with those damn things. They were pulling massively more power than they were supposed to!! Back to computers, I have a Zalman ZM-MFC2 multifunction controller that has live power draw displayed all of the time which is handy.

Fanaticjam · 19 Jun 2019 at 20:44

james.miller said:
Well, what do you mean by a "massive bill" ?

Well, original bill was like £200 a month but gave updated readings and was reduced to £125 a month. This is for one person living alone, I don't use heating at all, I very rarely cook or even heat up food as I work nights and am pretty bad for ordering food

. Also don't even have a kettle or microwave (been in limbo waiting for a new flatmate to take the other room). That means the only things drawing electricity are my fridge which is less than one year old, my pc, the boiler and a heated tower rack. In my last house I don't think our elec bill ever hit £100 even with 3 gamers in the house, and we used to play together 5 nights a week or so. Hell, even the lights in this house are mostly LED.

So I knew power draw in this flat was high for whatever reason due to old resident being a friend, but I swapped provider after moving in to go with a much cheaper one, this bill I'm dealing with is from old provider. That said, when updating meters I noticed this graph on the new ones website in my account area.

They're investigating, but I'm trying to do what I can to prove the issue isn't with what I'm doing/using.

ninezerofive said:
Yea you would think. The thing is that several virus scanners didn't find anything. And they are programmed smart now : as soon as you open task manager - they stop ! And only reactivate if you close the task manager and let it idle for few.

That's the world we live in now.

Thought that might be the case, howd you remove it?

pastymuncher said:
I have had over 3000w through mine and it still works. That was testing the power draw for one of these electric panel radiators that we were forced to be the guinea pigs for. You haven't seen a crazy electric bill until you have had your house heated with those damn things. They were pulling massively more power than they were supposed to!! Back to computers, I have a Zalman ZM-MFC2 multifunction controller that has live power draw displayed all of the time which is handy.

Thats pretty neat, however like i said I do want to see power draw from the whole set up, have a 2560x1440 144hz 28" and 2 24" 1920x1200 monitors hooked up etc. Thanks for the info on that device, will order one, or 2!

Stephanie Peterson · 19 Jun 2019 at 20:46

Plug a 4 way into the power meter and plug all pc components into it :confused:

james.miller · 19 Jun 2019 at 20:56

Over 4 times the national average consumption for a single guy in a flat? Yeah, your pc is not the issue there. Get a meter on all your white goods, check your heating if its electric then make sure you don't have an immersion heater on 24/7 etc. That's so far out that I wouldnt rule out somebody tapping in to your mains ...

ninezerofive · 19 Jun 2019 at 21:38

Fanaticjam said:
Thought that might be the case, howd you remove it?

Malwarbytes got rid of it.

Fanaticjam · 19 Jun 2019 at 22:45

Yeah, the heating is electric and all off at the wall, never been used by me. The flat was fully renovated ~ 2 years ago, prior to that it was derelict I'm pretty sure, so electrics should mostly be new.

LuckyBenski · 20 Jun 2019 at 08:10

Fanaticjam said:
Yeah, the heating is electric and all off at the wall, never been used by me. The flat was fully renovated ~ 2 years ago, prior to that it was derelict I'm pretty sure, so electrics should mostly be new.

You got a loft? Is someone nearby doing a bit of indoor farming?

Plec · 20 Jun 2019 at 08:24

LuckyBenski said:
You got a loft? Is someone nearby doing a bit of indoor farming?

Now you mention it - this is his neighbour on the right:

Fanaticjam · 20 Jun 2019 at 10:41

Plec said:
Now you mention it - this is his neighbour on the right:

Haha no, I was tempted to ask someone who did that to see how it compares!

Flats above a club, where I work, so I asked the GM if power bill dropped after flat renovated..

Anyhow, I think its a dodgy meter, or faulty boiler/towel rack

james.miller · 3 Jul 2019 at 10:41

@Fanaticjam, have you found the culprit yet?