Resource and energy efficiency of KDE applications

[Arjun AK]

On 26/06/21 2:10 pm, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> There has been some work underway for some time to look at resource and 
> energy efficiency of KDE applications. I would like to give some more 
> insight into what is happening there and invite you to join, where this 
> is interesting for you.
> 
> The first part is FEEP, the FOSS energy efficiency project[1]. The goal 
> of the project is to measure energy consumption of Free Software 
> applications, starting with some KDE applications. There is a 
> methodology developed by the Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld[2], which provides 
> a standardized way to get data about energy and other resource usage of 
> desktop applications. This is a good starting point.
> 
> The impact of information technology on the overall usage of electricity 
> and other resources is significant. Getting awareness and some actual 
> data will help us to find ways how we can contribute to a responsible 
> and sustainable usage of resources.
> 
> Energy efficiency is one aspect of sustainability, but there are more. 
> Resource usage for manufacturing devices and how long they can be used 
> is another one. And a big part also is user autonomy, so that people can 
> decide how they use software.
> 
> Since last year there is a set of criteria for resource and 
> energy-efficient software products as part of the German ecolabel Blue 
> Angel[3]. They try to capture these aspects in the form of a list of 
> requirements, covering energy-efficiency, potential hardware operating 
> life, and user autonomy.
> 
> KDE is in a very good position to fulfill these requirements, because 
> our vision and values are very much in line with the goals which are 
> behind these requirements. Transparency, privacy, freedom, giving people 
> control, responsible usage of resources, this is all very much ingrained 
> in our community.
> 
> So we are documenting how KDE applications meet the criteria for 
> resource and energy-efficient software products[4], and we are trying to 
> get the official certification of the Blue Angel by applying for the 
> label through KDE e.V.
> 
> I gave a presentation at this year's Akademy with the title "Towards 
> sustainable computing" which goes into more detail. You can find the 
> recording in KDE's YouTube channel[5].
> 
> There is a lot which we can do in this area to show how KDE already 
> contributes to sustainable computing and improve what we are doing. So 
> if you are interested in this topic and would like to do something there 
> are many opportunities. These often are small things which don't take 
> too much time. Every contribution counts. Some examples are:
> 
> * Defining typical usage scenarios which can be used as a base for 
> measuring energy efficiency of applications
> * Automating usage scenarios so measurements can be done in an automated 
> and repeatable way
> * Evaluation of energy measurements to find out what impacts energy 
> efficiency and how this can be optimized
> * Documentation of the user autonomy aspects, for example making our 
> commitments to transparency and privacy visible on websites or user manuals
> 
> We have a mailing list[6] and a Matrix channel[7] to talk about these 
> topics. You are very welcome to join us there.
> 
> We have the chance to make a difference here. Let's do it :-).
> 
> 
> [1]: https://invent.kde.org/cschumac/feep
> [2]: 
> https://www.umwelt-campus.de/en/research/projekte/green-software-engineering/projects/ufoplan-ssd-2015 
> 
> [3]: 
> https://www.blauer-engel.de/en/products/electric-devices/resources-and-energy-efficient-software-products 
> 
> [4]: https://invent.kde.org/cschumac/blue-angel-application
> [5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCFWTtSMbMs&t=13067s
> [6]: https://mail.kde.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/energy-efficiency
> [7]: https://webchat.kde.org/#/room/#energy-efficiency:kde.org
> 

Hi

	I don't think measuring current on a Desktop is the right way to do 
this. Your desktop is going to be too "noisy" when it comes to power 
measurements. Activity from components like hard disk, WiFi/BT, Ethernet 
or other software during the testing would end up affecting the 
measurements. It would be better off doing this on a SBC (maybe a PI2?), 
with as much hardware turned off as possible and running a minimum set 
of software. Measurements could be done with a multimeter[1] or maybe 
even a INA219[2].

[1] https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware#Multimeters
[2] https://www.adafruit.com/product/904

-
Arjun