EcoWattSense

Most computers in a lab are on. Few are in use.

EcoWattSense watches every computer in an office or a lab, tells you which ones are active, idle or simply left on, and estimates the energy that goes nowhere.

Lab B, 24 computers Thursday 09:00
0active
0idle
0unused

Right now about 0 W is drawn by computers nobody is using. Over a year that is roughly 0 kWh.

Simulation of one working week, sped up. Faded squares are switched off. Wattage per state from our planning report: 60 W active, 30 W idle, 25 W left on. Real numbers come from the client once it runs.

How it works

Three small parts. A client on each computer, one server, one dashboard. Nothing is installed on the network and no personal data leaves the machine, only a device id and its state.

Active

Actively being used. Keyboard, mouse or CPU activity in the last 10 minutes.

Idle

No activity for 10 minutes or more. Could sleep.

Unused

No activity for an hour or more. Should be off.

  • Monitoring client

    Runs in the background. Every five minutes it reads idle time, CPU load and screen lock, decides the state and sends one short report. Windows first, then Linux, then macOS.

  • Server

    Receives the reports, stores them in a database and works out the energy from state and a typical wattage for that type of computer.

  • Dashboard

    One page for the person who looks after the room. Every computer, its state now, its history, and the kWh that could be saved.

client → report every 5 min → server + database → dashboard

Privacy

The client sends only a random device id, the state and the time. No user name, no computer name, no list of programs. The server keeps the detailed records for a limited time and then only the totals. People who use a monitored computer are told that it is monitored.

Twelve weeks

The module runs from 14 September to 4 December 2026 with a deliverable every two weeks. We are in the design phase.

  1. Week 2Project proposal and plan
  2. Week 4Requirements and solution design, peer review 1
  3. Week 6Progress review, first demonstration
  4. Week 8Technical development and quality report, peer review 2
  5. Week 10Testing, evaluation and release report
  6. Week 12Final project and presentation

Team

Group 12, BSc Computing, Glasgow Caledonian University. Module M3W226703 Group Project.

  • Aqdas Abdulquassim
  • Zahid Hasan
  • Jason Holmes
  • Dariusz Jaroch
  • Kevin Little
  • Charldon Noel
  • Ruslan Novosad
  • Thomas Simpson