Could HWiNFO Calculate Electricity Cost Like a Kill-a-Watt?

[Canister]

I have a gadget called a Kill-a-watt. It is a simple thing that you plug into an electric outlet, then you plug an electric item into it, like a refrigerator or a computer. It measures how much electricity the electric thing uses. Further, if you input how much your electricity costs it can calculate the cost per hour, day, week, month or year. It is very handy.

I am wondering if HWiNFO has, or could have, that function. HWiNFO could monitor a compatible PSU or UPS's electricity use, then report cost per time. Of course, the user would have to input the electricity cost. If this is not currently part of the program, it seems like a good way to open new markets for HWiNFO.

Thanks!

 

[Martin]

HWiNFO could have such function but that depends solely on hardware capabilities - if the hardware can monitor power consumption of all rails. Currently only a few specific (intelligent, USB-connected) PSUs have such capability.

 

[Canister]

I think you listed which ones you know are compatible on my earlier thread, Titanium PSUs and HWiNFO. I assume those are the same ones you are talking about here. I would love an Electricity Cost Calculation feature! And I think, as I stated above, it could work with some uninterruptable power supplies, too. I have an older CyberPower 1000PFCLCD UPS that is read by HWiNFO.

I will be building a high end PC soon, and I am trying to find as many high quality parts that are compatible with HWiNFO as possible. I may start a "Building a HWiNFO PC" thread later.

We should all start contacting manufacturers to have them include more HWiNFO connectivity in their PC parts.

 

[Martin]

Another thing is that such calculation could be a bit misleading for PSUs that don't have a counter for total accumulated energy/power.
Without such counter HWiNFO would have to be run all the time to calculate the total power. If interrupted, then the power consumed would be lost (not accounted for).
Only the MSI MEG Ai1000P/Ai1300P have a counter for total runtime but not sure if for power as well.

 

[Canister]

Interesting.

That MSI seems like an interesting PSU. Its Platinum rated, which is really good, though I was hoping for Titanium.

The electrical cost would only be an estimate anyway as no one knows how much they will run their computer (or under what load) in the future.

I wonder if HWiNFO could store the data so it doesn't get lost. I leave HWiNFO on all the time, but I have to reboot sometimes. Actually, I wish HWiNFO would easily retain data between reboots so I can see the all-time max and minimum numbers.

These features could be for the paid version only, perhaps.

 

[Martin]

The problem here is that something needs to constantly read the data and store them. If this is not done, the data is lost.
Unless the hardware automatically stores the data, there will never be a guarantee of a reliable outcome.