Open-Source Tool Designed To Throttle PC and Server Performance Based On Electricity Pricing (tomshardware.com)
- Reference: 0176908201
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/04/03/0110212/open-source-tool-designed-to-throttle-pc-and-server-performance-based-on-electricity-pricing
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/applications/open-source-tool-designed-to-throttle-pc-and-server-performance-based-on-electricity-pricing-lightweight-cli-can-automatically-limit-clocks-during-peak-hours
> The simple program, called WattWise, came about when Naveen built a dual-socket EPYC workstation with plans to add four GPUs. It's a power-intensive setup, so he wanted a way to monitor its power consumption using a Kasa smart plug. The enthusiast has released the monitoring portion of the project to the public now, but the portion that manages clocks and power will be released later. Unfortunately, the Kasa Smart app and the Home Assistant dashboard was inconvenient and couldn't do everything he desired. He already had a terminal window running monitoring tools like htop, nvtop, and nload, and decided to take matters into his own hands rather than dealing with yet another app.
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> Naveen built a terminal-based UI that shows power consumption data through Home Assistant and the TP-Link integration. The app monitors real-time power use, showing wattage and current, as well as providing historical consumption charts. More importantly, it is designed to automatically throttle CPU and GPU performance. Naveen's power provider uses Time-of-Use (ToU) pricing, so using a lot of power during peak hours can cost significantly more. The workstation can draw as much as 1400 watts at full load, but by reducing the CPU frequency from 3.7 GHz to 1.5 GHz, he's able to reduce consumption by about 225 watts. (No mention is made of GPU throttling, which could potentially allow for even higher power savings with a quad-GPU setup.)
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> Results will vary based on the hardware being used, naturally, and servers can pull far more power than a typical desktop -- even one designed and used for gaming. WattWise optimizes the system's clock speed based on the current system load, power consumption as reported by the smart plug, and the time -- with the latter factoring in peak pricing. From there, it uses a Proportional-Integral (PI) controller to manage the power and adapts system parameters based on the three variables.
A blog post with more information is available [2]here .
WattWise is also available [3]on GitHub .
[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/software/applications/open-source-tool-designed-to-throttle-pc-and-server-performance-based-on-electricity-pricing-lightweight-cli-can-automatically-limit-clocks-during-peak-hours
[2] https://www.naveen.ing/cli-for-smartplugs/
[3] https://github.com/naveenkul/WattWise
This sounds like malware (Score:2)
And I hope the companies involved in detecting such nonsense maintain their professionalism and flag this BS appropriately.
Waste to save. (Score:2)
> Requirements
> Python 3.8 or later
> A TP-Link Kasa smart plug connected to your equipment
> Optional: Home Assistant setup with the Kasa integration
So to "save electricity" you have to always run:
* an IoT WiFi relay switch that is always on and computing some crap to phones home about
* a docker instance to communicate with it using bloated python code
If you're going to do SCADA then build a real SCADA system. Using internet-of-shit components just wastes energy and money.
Re: (Score:2)
Anybody using this is already running Home Assistant for other purposes. The plug draws a watt (*drops monocle*) to adjust for ToU electricity usage. Simple goal, simple project. Do people like you suffocate if you aren't constantly bitching about something?
Re: (Score:2)
HA and Kasa doesn't require any cloud/IoT access. It works 100% local.
I guarantee you that the vampire power draw of many devices, especially gaming consoles and entertainment systems, dwarfs the power draw of a Kasa smartplug.
I've implemented dozens of these throughout the house. All blocked from any cloud access, and only deployed where the power savings outweighed the cost of the device factored over 5 years of savings, including the constant power draw of the Kasa device.
"showing wattage and current" (Score:2)
Why not "wattage and amperage", beau?
Or ... (Score:2)
I set the "cpufreq" governor to "conservative" on my Linux Mint system and (probably) get much the same benefit. (I tried "ondemand" but like the former better for my use...
From [1]Linux CPUFreq Governors [kernel.org]:
> 2.5 Conservative: The CPUfreq governor "conservative", much like the "ondemand" governor, sets the CPU frequency depending on the current usage. It differs in behavior in that it gracefully increases and decreases the CPU speed rather than jumping to max speed the moment there is any load on the CPU.
On my OPNsense system, I enabled PowerD and set the AC and Normal power modes to "Adaptive" (and Battery to "Minimum") -- which seems to give about the same results as on my Linux systems.
Certainly lowers the power consumption when idle -- I tested both systems with a Kill-A-Watt type meter.
[1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt
Re: (Score:2)
That exact mindset is what led us to be dependent on oil to begin with. No care for efficiency. We got plenty of oil, why bother improving the engine? Let's make it loud for no good reason instead. Oh wait, we don't have plenty of oil? Uh, shit better get to improving the engine or improve other fuel sources.
We could have (and should have) been investing in energy efficiency waaay earlier. But, nooo, people rather be fucking retarded.
Re: (Score:1)
> Reading slashdot, wind, solar and whatever other "renewables" are now so cheap that there's no need to meter. So why bother?
I've heard of mockery on claims on energy for nuclear fission being too cheap to meter but if you think about it there's many instances where electricity is too cheap to meter.
For those that rented a hotel room, do you recall a charge for the electricity you used? I don't, because electricity in that case is too cheap to meter.
Has anyone rented a spot at an RV park? The kind with the big 50 amp plugs for people that drive houses down the road? Were you charged for your electricity use? I rented such spo