Patent ID: 8570564

Claim:
A printing device comprising: an electrical power supply within a frame of the printing device; an electrical power measuring circuit within the frame of the printing device that is operatively connected to the electrical power supply within the frame of the printing device and configured to measure electrical power usage of the electrical power supply; a communication port; and a printer controller operatively coupled to the electrical power measuring circuit and the communication port, the printer controller configured to receive a measurement of electrical energy usage by the printing device during a predetermined time period from the electrical power measuring circuit, to identify an operational activity period for the electrical usage measurement, to communicate the electrical energy usage measurement for the operational activity period to a monitoring system through the communication port, and to modify an operational parameter for the printing device in response to an instruction received from the monitoring system that generated the instruction in response to a difference between the electrical energy usage measurement and an electrical energy usage amount for a corresponding operational activity period exceeding a predetermined threshold.