As technology continues to advance, it has become increasingly important for individuals to monitor their energy consumption. With the growing emphasis on sustainability and environmental awareness, keeping track of power usage is essential for reducing our carbon footprint and saving money on electricity bills.

If you are a Ubuntu user and want to keep a close eye on your power usage in real-time, you can easily display this information on your top bar. By following a few simple steps, you can set up a power usage indicator that shows your current energy consumption in watts right at the top of your screen.

Here’s how you can display power usage in watts on Ubuntu’s top bar:

Step 1: Install the Powerline package
First, you will need to install the Powerline package, which will allow you to display the power usage indicator on your top bar. Open your terminal and run the following command to install the Powerline package:

sudo apt install powerline

Step 2: Install the powerline-status package
Next, you will need to install the powerline-status package, which contains the necessary components for the power usage indicator. Run the following command in your terminal to install the package:

pip install powerline-status

Step 3: Configure Powerline
After installing the required packages, you will need to configure Powerline to display the power usage indicator. Open your terminal and run the following command to edit the Powerline configuration file:

gedit ~/.config/powerline/config.json

In the configuration file, add the following lines to display the power usage indicator on your top bar:

{
"ext": {
"shell": {
"theme": "default_leftonly"
}
},
"segment_data": {
"shell": {
"before": "watts",
"priority": -100
}
}
}

Save the configuration file and exit the text editor.

Step 4: Restart Powerline
To apply the changes you made to the Powerline configuration, you will need to restart the Powerline service. Run the following command in your terminal to restart Powerline:

powerline-daemon --replace

After restarting Powerline, you should now see the power usage indicator displaying your current energy consumption in watts on your top bar.

By following these simple steps, you can easily monitor your power usage in real-time on Ubuntu’s top bar. This convenient feature allows you to stay informed about your energy consumption and make more informed decisions about how to reduce your power usage and save money on electricity bills. With just a few tweaks to your system settings, you can contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.