Computer Power Usage

My computer, my computers, our computers, use up power.

I’ve just set up a solar situation. It involves a grid of solar panels (not to be confused with the utility grid), battery, and an inverter that sends information to a sophisticated android app that I’ve become addicted to watching.

This thread concerns how much power computer equipment; and computer usage affects power usage. (Note: I’ve looked up the subject on this forum and am especially impressed by thread OneDrive high disk usage (not to mention PilgrimLyieu’s command of the English language/kanji and his use of Task Manager to monitor power-related developments). For now I will be asking some fairly basic questions.

I decided to start this thread because I wondered: “Is power usage affected because of the outrageous number of Browsers and Browser tabs I have up all the time?”

Following is a list of ‘power consumers’. Can we expand the list; discuss ways they use power; how that power can be monitored (I, for example, can use the Solar app.); and how that power usage can be lessened.

Computers
Monitors
Drives
Applications
Background Apps
Emails
Browsers
Browser tabs
(open) Windows
Audio level
Etc.

I hope this thread proves productive.

jro11 said:

Browsers

Click to expand...

I typically have a number of open browsers (4-5) sporting an outrageous number of tabs. Will closing these tabs affect power usage? How can I monitor this in Task Manager?

The easiest way would probably be to power your computer and any auxiliaries through a smart plug with energy monitoring. I see you live in California. Look on Amazon.com for smart plugs or energy monitors. This is a good example

Amazon.com

jro11 said:

Background Apps

Click to expand...

We're always encouraged to close background apps we don't use, and those apps are listed in the task manager. In fact, I notice there's a Tutorial here Enable or Disable Background Apps in Windows 11 Tutorial covering how to. But which background apps to apply this to? and how to know??

Close Laptop Lid
I’m running Win11 off a laptop (plus two monitors). When I close the laptop lid, the computer and monitors go dark (Sleep?)—when I open the lid I must re-sign-in (pin). Is closing the lid saving power?

jro11 said:

I typically have a number of open browsers (4-5) sporting an outrageous number of tabs. Will closing these tabs affect power usage? How can I monitor this in Task Manager?

Click to expand...

Modern browsers have a built-in function to snooze tabs that are not in use after a particular period. Chrome is, I think, the most recent to finally adopt this, Firefox has had it for a while, and even Edge does.

Having tons of browser tabs is not really going to be that big of a problem - most websites are static pages, with not a lot changing, and unless you're constantly refreshing tabs, you're not really using a whole lot of power with them

Tabs that automatically refresh will use more power. Tabs that you constantly switch to to check something, download something from, etc., will use more. But, by and large, the power hungry tabs are almost always going to be tabs that have media streaming (whether you're streaming content, of the web page is constantly streaming things like ads, for example).

Chrome has finally added the grouping feature that allows you to create tab groups, assign tabs to groups, close the group completely (it gets shuffled down to the book mark bar) and save those groups to be used later, even if you restart Chrome. It's a huge game changer for the way that Chrome works. I have an addon that I use in Firefox that achieves a similar thing to this that I've been using for a couple of years now.

But if you're worried about overall power consumption, things like power off the monitor(s) after short periods of inactivity, sleep mode, and more, will go a long way to reducing your power consumption as well. Your display(s) is (are) going to be one of the largest power draws outside of the CPU and GPU, depending upon the model of your laptop, and any time you can get away with it powering off you should see a decent reduction in power consumption.

jro11 said:

We're always encouraged to close background apps we don't use, and those apps are listed in the task manager. In fact, I notice there's a Tutorial here Enable or Disable Background Apps in Windows 11 Tutorial covering how to. But which background apps to apply this to? and how to know??

Click to expand...

The vast majority of apps that show up in the App list aren't even capable to run in the background. If, for example, you want to see notifications when new e-mail messages arrive in the Mail app, then, for reasons that should be completely obvious, you should allow the Mail app to run in the background. So, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out the answer IMO.

That said, maybe check out these browser addons:
Simple Tab Groups:
Auto Tab Discard:
OneTab:
Tab Session Manager:

WOW what a lot of tab-related extensions to check (thanks, I think)

I didn't know one could make Outlook a background app nor why that would be useful. My Outlook is always running and is set to check for more mail at a particular (20 min, I believe) time interval--though, being Outlook, one can never know. (Outlook just changed the number of emails in my Drafts folder from 20ish to over 800! I suspect it took them from either my Sent folder or Inbox!!!)

But back to the subject at hand. Looking at my Task Manager, I count over 185 processes (what I've been calling background apps--that's correct isn't it?) as running and this doesn't count all the sub processes
which would probably add a few hundred! Now it's true that most of them are marked 0% CPU usage - (total 10%). But it's taking up tons of memory (51% total), and just scanning it constantly/repeatedly, if for no more reason than to keep the list current, must be a form of (power affecting) work!

(Since Brink is here) I have to ask what I feel is a crazy question. What with all the problems I'm having with Win11, could it be that the problem this computer is having is a hardware (actual components on the board) problem that no messing with software, specifically the operating system, can resolve?
In other words, do I just have a bum machine?

@jro11 You're looking for problems that don't exist. When you look at Task Manager, it's perfectly normal to see hundreds of processes "running". Almost all of those processes are not apps running in the background and taking up resources. You have to understand that Windows is an interrupt driven operating system. Those processes are taking up little to no resources. They are just sitting there in memory waiting for an interrupt to ask them to do something. An interrupt could be your pressing a button or a scheduled process being activated.

I was having a similar discussion at another forum, and you've just eloquently stated exactly what I was trying to get across there.

I'm stealing that (with appropriate attribution, of course)!

Then what is it that 'they' mean when they say allowing too many startup apps (19 currently--all appearing in Task Manager) is 'wasting resources and slowing down the computer'? And doesn't the amounts-of-memory (A LOT) involved make a (taking up resources) difference? And constantly checking and updating that list, can't be insignificant. And if Task Manager lists the apps as Processes or Tasks doesn't that mean Processes or Tasks can be thought of as Apps (and no, I don't believe I'm engaged in the logical fallacy 'affirming the consequent').

@jro11 Instead of jumping on what "they say" or "they mean" or the latest conspiracy theories, you appear to be interested enough in Windows to do the work to understand how Windows actually works. Let me suggest that you read the two-volume set of "Windows Internals 7th Edition" - Microsoft Press.

jro11 said:

WOW what a lot of tab-related extensions to check (thanks, I think)

I didn't know one could make Outlook a background app nor why that would be useful. My Outlook is always running and is set to check for more mail at a particular (20 min, I believe) time interval--though, being Outlook, one can never know. (Outlook just changed the number of emails in my Drafts folder from 20ish to over 800! I suspect it took them from either my Sent folder or Inbox!!!)

Click to expand...

I was talking about the Mail app that is a built-in app of Windows 10/11, but anyway... I suppose that the new app named Outlook for Windows (that will officially replace it next year according to Microsoft) works similarly in this regard, although I haven't tried the new app myself yet. Seeing as someone posted in another thread that this new app relies heavily on continuous internet access and it has problems, I suspect that stopping it from being a background app might lead to additional problems with it.

jro11 said:

But back to the subject at hand. Looking at my Task Manager, I count over 185 processes (what I've been calling background apps--that's correct isn't it?) as running and this doesn't count all the sub processes
View attachment 77173which would probably add a few hundred! Now it's true that most of them are marked 0% CPU usage - (total 10%). But it's taking up tons of memory (51% total), and just scanning it constantly/repeatedly, if for no more reason than to keep the list current, must be a form of (power affecting) work!

Click to expand...

No, background apps are explained in the tutorial I linked. Further, the number of processes that you see in Task Manager says nothing about how many system resources are consumed by them, and, 185 is still very much reasonable. But if you keep a lot of browser tabs open, then the Auto Discard Tabs addon really can help to mitigate the potential problem of running out of free available memory, and also can help to lower the CPU usage to some degree.

That said, if a Windows PC is running low on memory for no good reason, i.e., due to not having enough physical RAM installed in it for what you want to achieve and/or due to one or more processes consuming more memory than they factually should be consuming (when there are other processes that, as a result of this, are being held back in such a particular way that it causes the overall power efficiency to suffer), it makes perfect sense to reduce the memory consumption of all those open tabs.

For these same reasons, Microsoft Edge browser lets you use Sleeping Tabs. Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge Tutorial

Finally, there exist a whole plethora of other optimizations that can help to boost power efficiency of a PC. For example, you could decide to undervolt the CPU. Personally, I, also like to disable Intel Turbo Boost, not just to save more power, but also to keep the cooling fan silent whenever I want. Silence very often helps me better concentrate during my work, and, I own a fairly decent Hi-Fi system with big floorstanding loudspeakers that I prefer to listen to with not too much background noise going on, it helps me to relax, and I need to take long breaks often.

jro11 said:

Then what is it that 'they' mean when they say allowing too many startup apps (19 currently--all appearing in Task Manager) is 'wasting resources and slowing down the computer'? And doesn't the amounts-of-memory (A LOT) involved make a (taking up resources) difference? And constantly checking and updating that list, can't be insignificant. And if Task Manager lists the apps as Processes or Tasks doesn't that mean Processes or Tasks can be thought of as Apps (and no, I don't believe I'm engaged in the logical fallacy 'affirming the consequent').

Click to expand...

It's not the number of apps you see in the task manager Processes tab list that you need to be worried about (for the most part).

Go to the Startup apps tab - those are 3rd party applications that you've installed / came pre-installed with your system, that are starting with Windows / when you log in. This is what they are talking about.

A similar list (really, it should be the same) can be found from Windows Settings --> Apps --> Startup

This screen shot is my computer power usage over a space of 6 hours, using multiple browsers, word, excel and vmware.
It doesn't vary too much no matter what i am doing/using.

Turn the screen off for about 1 minute and see if there is a general decrease or not (obviously after you turn it back on again lol.

BTW, what app are you using to get that, or is that from an external power meter?

One or more of these links may be useful:

Ironically, Task Manager, itself, uses about 30% CPU! I prefer to use TrayStatus which seems to add no load to the CPU. I've just upgrade to the pro version - USD19 lifetime license for multiple computers. It puts icons in the tray for CPU, Disk activity and memory. Many other features too.

I’m interested in why it’s a concern? Isn’t it free electricity? I’d be running disco lights and have sexy dances under ultra violets. Preferably in the early afternoon because I get grump from being tired by at least 7pm.