… for Random Weirdness

Tip #158: Monitor Energy Usage

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Use this to conserve energy when running on battery.

Hidden in Applications > Utilities is a powerful measurement tool called: Activity Monitor. Type Shift + Cmd + U to open the Utilities folder. Double-click Activity Monitor to start the app.

Activity Monitor allows us to measure current activity in five key areas:

• CPU
• Memory (RAM)
• Energy
• Disk (local storage)
• Network (both Internet and other network-connected devices)

Most of the time, I’m running on AC power. However, for users running their laptops on battery, energy conservation is critical. Activity Monitor makes monitoring energy usage easy. Here’s how.

Click the Energy tab at the top. The Energy pane shows overall energy use and the energy used by each app:

• Energy Impact: A relative measure of the current energy consumption of the app. Lower numbers are better. A triangle to the left of an app’s name means that the app consists of multiple processes. Click the triangle to see details about each process.
• Avg Energy Impact: The average energy impact for the past 8 hours or since the Mac started up, whichever is shorter. Average energy impact is also shown for apps that were running during that time, but have since been quit. The names of those apps are dimmed.

BONUS

NOTE: If you run Activity Monitor on a laptop, you’ll see additional battery statistics at the bottom.

As energy use increases, the length of time that a Mac can operate on battery power decreases. If the battery life of your portable Mac is shorter than usual, you can use the Avg Energy Impact column to find apps that have been using the most energy recently. Quit those apps if you don’t need them, or contact the developer of the app if you notice that the app’s energy use remains high even when the app doesn’t appear to be doing anything.