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| Seasonic PowerAngel Power Monitor |
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| Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov | |
| Wednesday, 13 June 2007 | |
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On the topic of computers, power supplies deal with this using some form of PFC (Power Factor Correction). Power supplies without any PFC usually run at about 0.5-0.7 meaning that up to half the energy coming from a source isn't even being used. Those with passive PFC range from 0.6-0.8 meaning as much as 80% of the energy coming from a source is being used by the unit (this is before efficiency is factored in). PSUs with active PFC range from 0.95-0.99 meaning close to all of the energy coming from a source is being utilized. This has an obvious effect on energy usage and subsequently the energy bill. This brings me to the fourth button. Initially it displays the frequency which should be as close to 60 Hz as possible. Pressing it again shows the current Power Factor. You'll notice that in this case only 64% of the electricity coming from the wall is being used by the PSU; the rest is lost in harmonics (and even more is lost as heat later on, the exact value dictated by power supply efficiency). The fifth and final button is a particularly useful in forecasting the actual energy bill. For as long as the unit is plugged in, the timer will run from 0 hours upward and pressing the button will switch between the time elapsed and the power usage in kilowatt-hours thus far. This way you can run your PC for 24 hours doing a variety of tasks (letting it sit idle, doing low-end work, gaming, etc), then multiply the resulting kilowatt-hours by the number of days in the current month, then multiply that by the amount your company charges per kilowatt-hour and you'll have a good estimate of how much of your energy bill results from a PC obsession. Overall the PowerAngel is a very handy tool, though not for everyone. Industry/business professionals, PC enthusiasts, individuals who live by numbers, and anyone who's paranoid about sketchy appliances will find this gadget to be invaluable. My only complaint is the lack of any sort of memory. It would be a lot more useful if one could see an average of the wattage, the PFC, the current, the voltage, etc over a period of time as opposed to instantaneous changes. Even with the kilowatt-hours readout it's still impossible to find out the averages of each measurement over time. Pros
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 June 2007 ) |
