Should consumption/consumptions be in singular or in plural here?
The total power consumption of a circuit is the sum of the power consumption of the logic cells making up the circuit.
The total power consumption of a circuit is the sum of the power consumptions of the logic cells making up the circuit.
Can you have more than one power consumption? Or is consumption uncountable like power is here? How can one in general know what kind of a noun one is dealing with? Are there rules governing this that native speakers all know?
Is this particular context some sort of special case compared with normal usage because of its mathematical nature?