Total system power measurement
 

Hi

I was wondering whether there exists a utility in linux which gives us total power consumed by our system. I wanted to measure the total power consumption and not individual consumption as that of memory or CPU.

Is wattmeter the only way? Can't we get any measure from linux? Where does linux power management unit get its readings from?

No, the only way to get a real power measurement of the entire system is by using a watt meter on the AC side of the PSU. Everything else is little more than a guess, though I understand the next generation of PSUs will start offering monitoring features as consumers become more energy conscious.

Physical measurement is the only real way of doing it, however the following utility may be helpful as a general guide

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp