Estimate Energy Usage with the Desktop Configurator - SM5

Song Meter SM5 User Guide
Core Product
SM5
Accessory

The desktop configurator can estimate cumulative energy use over the course of your schedule based on your programmed settings. This is particularly useful for planning solar-powered deployments.

About this task

If you plan to deploy the SM5 using an external battery, you will need to determine how much energy the recorder will use over the course of your deployment period and choose a battery with a capacity greater than that estimate. If you plan to power the SM5 with an external battery and solar panel, you will need to determine how much energy the recorder will use each day and choose a solar panel that can recuperate at least that amount of energy per day, on average.

The Desktop Configurator provides a running estimate of energy consumption over the course of a deployment schedule, allowing you to plan for deployments with external power.

Procedure

  1. Install the SM5/SM5BAT Desktop Configurator and open it.
  2. In the Deployment Scenario panel, select the Song Meter Model you want to program.
    We will return to rest of the Deployment Scenario parameters in a later step.
  3. Configure the Settings and Schedule panels to match your anticipated deployment.
    Make sure you scroll down and configure all entries in the Settings panel. For schedules based on sunrise and sunset, Location and Time Zone settings will directly affect how many hours the SM5 records each day. The GPS mode setting can dramatically increase power consumption in Continuous mode.
  4. Adjust the Deployment Scenario parameters to match your planned deployment.
    1. Set the Simulation Start date to when you plan to deploy the SM5.
      Because daylight hours shift over time, your daily recording hours and expected energy consumption may depend on the deployment start date.
    2. Set the Simulation Start time to 00:00:00.
      This will simplify the process of estimating daily energy use.
    3. Select the SD Cards you plan to use in each of the SM5's slots.
    4. Select whether your SM5 has Stub microphones and/or External microphones installed.
      Stub microphones and external microphones slightly increase energy usage, even if they are not used for recording.
    5. Set Batteries to Solar (unlimited).
  5. Position your mouse cursor over a recording period in the calendar panel.
    Text at the bottom-left corner of the window will display the energy consumed from the beginning of the simulated schedule until that point, in Watt-hours (Wh).
    For example, the text may read 2026-Mar-26 10:53:00 (01:00:00) 3.8Wh Cards:5.7G(17) [rise 06:53 set 19:19]. The text "3.8Wh" means the recorder is predicted to have consumed 3.8 Watt-hours of energy from the beginning of the schedule until the point in the schedule where the mouse cursor is hovering.
  6. Scroll the calendar to the last date of your planned deployment, and position the mouse cursor over the right-most edge of the last recording period in that day.
    The energy consumption in the bottom-left corner is the total estimated energy consumption over the length of the full deployment.
    If the last recording period is displayed in dark purple, it means your SD cards are predicted to have filled up before the end of your deployment. Increase the size of the SD cards and check the energy consumption again.
  7. Divide the total estimated energy consumption by the total number of schedule days to determine the average estimated energy consumption.
    Tip: The numbers in parentheses along the left edge of the calendar count the schedule days, beginning with 0. Add 1 to the day count on the date you are measuring to determine the total number of schedule days.

    In this example, the mouse cursor is hovering over the last recording period on 2026-May-15 (51), and the energy usage is 155.0 W h.

    In the above example, the measured date is 2026-May-15, marked as (51). Including day 0, the total number of schedule days is 52, and the average daily energy usage is 155.0 W h / 52 days = 2.98 W h/day.