Energy saving project

[andywee]

i swapped all my PC's PSU.
i used to antec 550ws and coolermaster 850ws

system1 with antec 550ws
idle=189ws
load=310ws

system1 with new FSP 700ws PSU
idle=121ws
load=240ws

system2 with coolermaster 850ws
idle=290ws
load=700ws

system2 with new FSP 1010ws PSU
idle=181ws
load=450ws


homeseer server with noname 120ws PSU
with optical drive and 3.5" HDD
idle=60ws

homeseer server with FSP150ws PSU
without optical drive and 2.5" HDD
idle=32ws


3year old non-invertor single spilt toshiba aircon
600ws

new dual spilt invertor mitsubishi aircon
631ws (both on)
300ws (only 1 on)



old samsung fridge
avg 250ws

new mitsubishi fridge
avg 90ws

[andywee]

god knows how much i actually saved.

[andywee]

i also changed all my CFL to 5ws osram tubes.

oh..
FL tubes. with magnetic ballast. (36ws tube)
65ws

FL tubes. with electronic ballast. (36ws tube)
41ws

[TANE]

good Job Andywee
You have a complete server farm.

Replacing them by 1 Vmware server will also save lot.

[andywee]

i cant. system1=MCE. which always goes into standby after 2hrs of non-use.
system2-workstation. which goes into sleep the moment i leave my chair for more than 5mins. (tagged to MS13)
the homeseer server will send a comand to workstation to sleep.
on top of that my homeseer server is also downloads BT. =p

[TANE]

MCE..and standby...
My Acer MCE will almost never go to standby...hope after new installation it will work better

I did run Homeseer on my MCE for almost 6 months..in Vmware.

[roscoe]

Quite pleased I read this thread, one reaction is to view the postings as rather extreme techno people getting a bit overly competitive with the watt killing race, however,.......

I was wanting to reduce my PC/server loading, so here's what I've done

1) My lovely dell server is re-classified as project daytime only when required is it started. Have decommissioned lots of Vmwares as not essential. ie home domain
(Probably 240w)

2) a (really great) brick industrial PC, NISE 3110 has been given a fileserver role of handy/project/backup duties by adding 500gb 2.5 HD. This is on all the time anyway using CF
Could have used atom, but overall savings not much and this has multi-roles, so atom does only 70% of tasks
(idlish ~20w with core duo T2500)

3) standard, sometimes used for day stuff PC, added 1tb disk for 2nd level strorage to boost fs capacity ie vmware images, pc images
It is also handy XP for other things that come up for short periods.
PC when on is 75w, power management to standy used after 15m
Standby power 2w, WOL used to restart quickly

Quite pleased with the practical solution as it saved a fortune as I was consider a lower energy 24x7 server, so big money saving as all I spent was 2 hd at 52+71 gbp

Averagey, low load power, 22w, yee-haaa

Cheers for the inspiration to consider this route and finally wrestle the standby/WOL into submission.

I have 218w saving, cool, where can I now spend the savings

[mo046]

Hi,

I was away from home for a few days so I was able to measure the idle power consumtion of my house over an extended period. I've done some optimising lately:
- eeeBox for Homeseer control instead of 95 W PC (saving 75 W); PC in sleep mode and only used max 1 hour a day for email and some other stuff
- replaced Linksys/Kiss DP-1600 mediaplayed with the same eeeBox and Mediaportal/XMBC software (still testing which is best suited); HD playback not important for me (at the moment) so eeeBox is fine (saving 15 W standby)
- installed Fritz!Box 7270 to replace DECT base station, Netgear router and Linksys/Sipura SPA-3000 VoIP adapter (saving 10 W)
- switched off Freecom FSG-3 NAS; only used sporadicly for backup, but was running 24/7 (saving 20 W)
- some other small finetuning

Result: reduction from 320 W to 150 W (minimum idle consumption), EUR 342 /yr.
Average over 24 hrs with nighttime security lighting: 190 W.

Although this is already a really good result, I would like to do some more optimizing:
- replace my harddisk recorder / DVD player with a Technotrend CT-3650 DVB-C/T receiver and external DVD player connected to the eeeBox. Still testing, software and hardware not yet reliable enough. (saving 5-10 W)
- replace my NAS (Linksys NSLU2 with 2 HDD) by one 1TB HDD (saving 20-25 W)
- remove cable TV decoder in bedroom, analogue is sufficient (saving 11 W)

Estimated additional saving approx. EUR 80 /yr


** Maurice **

[TANE]

Two new energy savers.
- washing machine
- tumble dryer

Both are based on the latest technology and are in top 5 of the most energy efficient machines.

Washing machine chart less than 300 Watt (for the dryer 600 watt)
this is about 75% saving compared to my old machines. (15 yrs old)

[img]uploaded/Chak/2009611215723_wasmachine.png[/img]

[AshaiRey]

I have an Epson color laser printer that was on 24/7 just to print 4 or 5 sheets a month. [V]

To improve this i plugged the printer via a appliance module (kika YCT-1000) to the mains. I wrote a small script for HS to check the print spooling folder every 2 minutes and if a document that was send to the print is detected in the folder then the printer is turned on for just a few minutes.

I do about the same for a backup solution. An old external USB drive is connected with an appliance module to mains. If a backup has to be made i turn on the power to the drive and wait a minute for a drive letter to show up. Then i start the backup process and when finished i turn everything off again.

[Lempens]

Thanks for the tip about the printer. Scanning the printer spooler, even works on a network letting the program run on the server.

[Jeroen Bartels]

@ AshaiRey
Can you share the script for the printer spooling folder with us. I also use a KAKU (not KIKA switch for the printer but have to torn it on manually.
Maybe a screenshot of the event trigger page.

Thanx

[Alexander]

You can use WMI to monitor the status of a printer queue like this:

Code: Select all

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colPrintQueues =  objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_PerfFormattedData_Spooler_PrintQueue Where " & _
        "Name <> '_Total'")
For Each objPrintQueue in colPrintQueues
    Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objPrintQueue.Name
    Wscript.Echo "Current jobs: " & objPrintQueue.Jobs
Next

More printing related vbscripts: http://www.activexperts.com/activmonito ... Queues.htm

BTW: If he would show you the screendump of the triggering part, it will show a recurring every 2 minutes (that is what he says in his post).

You can also create an MWI provider that checks for the queue and does a status update to a HS device. That its realtime, instead of the recurring event. It will cost more time to create it ofcourse.

[AshaiRey]

I will post the script later today when i am home again.

[edit]
Here it is

Please note.
These points are taken in account by the script
- Files that are printed will have a file size of 0 Kb for some time.
- Files are automaticaly removed by the spooler process when printing is done.
- Turn on the printer only when it's not on.


--------------

Code: Select all

Public Sub Main(ByVal Parms As String)
  dim oFS, oFolder
   oFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
   'Default print spooler location on a Windows XP system
   oFolder = oFS.GetFolder("C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS")
  
  
  ' Check of er files in de SPOOLER folder staan
  ' Check and see if there are files to print
  if(oFolder.Files.Count > 0) Then 

	 'Check of er een file is groter dan 0Kb
         'Are these files larger then 0 Kb?
	  dim oFile, Test
	  Test = 0
	  for each oFile in oFolder.Files
	  	Test = 1
	  next
	  If(Test = 1) Then 
		' Check of de printer (A6) UIT staat
                ' If printer (A6) is OFF then turn it ON
 	  	if(hs.IsOff("A6") ) Then hs.TriggerEvent ("Print document")
	  End If
  End If
End Sub

And the events
Recurring event

[Lempens]

http://www.merrioncomputing.com/Program ... rinter.htm

Here is an other way to do it. Not by scanning a directory but, by using the Spooler driver, to get info about printer jobs from all printers or only 1 printer. Maybe interesting for printer using charts