Blue Iris power consumption experiments

bp2008

Staff member
Mar 10, 2014
12,875
14,460
USA
I have my Blue Iris server connected to an Ubiquiti mFi mPower Pro now, which measures power consumption, so I ran some tests.

System #1

i7-3770K (stock speed)
16 GB RAM
1x SSD
4x HDD
Nvidia GTX 950 GPU (only to facilitate 4K@60hz output)
Blue Iris load of 635 MP/s, motion detecting

It is a bit of a power hog since it is years old, has so many HDDs, and a discrete GPU

Baseline Reading

82 watts @ 1% CPU usage (task manager) with Blue Iris not running at all.

Hardware Acceleration Enabled

132 watts @ 33% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI closed.
155 watts @ 55% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI open, maximized at 4K resolution, 6 FPS live view limit.

Hardware Acceleration Disabled

158 watts @ 77% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI closed.
167 watts @ 100% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI open, maximized at 4K resolution, 6 FPS preview limit. The system froze up and I had to unplug the network cord before even the mouse pointer would respond again.

System #2

i7-3770K (stock speed)
16 GB RAM
2x SSD
3x HDD
Onboard graphics only
Blue Iris load of 350 MP/s, continuous recording without motion detection

I will not be measuring with the GUI open because this system never gets monitored live, and I have the live view frame rate limit set to 1 FPS. This is a small, nearly inconsequential additional load of about 2% CPU / 2 watts.


Baseline Reading

60 watts @ 1% CPU usage (task manager) with Blue Iris not running at all.

Hardware Acceleration Enabled

83 watts @ 15% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI closed.

Hardware Acceleration Disabled

97 watts @ 35% total CPU usage with Blue Iris GUI closed.
 
So basically, enabling Hardware Acceleration is helping to reduce the power consumption. That's good.
 
So basically, enabling Hardware Acceleration is helping to reduce the power consumption. That's good.
System #1
Saving about $12/year
((26*24*365)/1000)*0.05=$11.38

System #2
Saving about $6/year.
((14*24*365)/1000)*0.05=$6.13

Use your own electrical rate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
System #1
Saving about $12/year
((26*24*365)/1000)*0.05=$11.38

System #2
Saving about $6/year.
((14*24*365)/1000)*0.05=$6.13

Use your own electrical rate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No one pays 5 cents a kwh... more like 11-25...
 
No one pays 5 cents a kwh... more like 11-25...
You are right for residential, although many rural power cooperatives in my area offer an "all electrical heat" subsidized rate that gets down there. I had my employers raw industrial rate without demand charges in my head (4.7 cents/kwh). It looks like the residential rates are anywhere from $0.07 to $0.27 / kwh.

If you live in Hawaii we are talking about:
System 1 - $61
System 2 - $33

Looks like about a few date nights worth of savings. Bonus!
 
It would be interesting to see numbers with a newer processor. Maybe I will go borrow one of those power meters...
 
One thing you can say about Oklahoma, it is a cheap place to live..... $0.04 per kwh
its cant be .04....you need to consider the price of electric, delivery and tax...a quick google search indicates 8-9c...