Lets talk about UPS power supplies

looney2ns

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With the proper bios settings in my Optiplex, WOL works perfectly from the stock Asus firmware.
 

bp2008

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I've actually never successfully used Wake on LAN because the computers I wanted to do it with didn't support it (the NIC would be offline when the PC was off). Wake on LAN is rather unimportant when you have the PC connected to a remote controllable power outlet anyway.
 

NVR990

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Your PC and router will consume way less than 150W
As a point of reference, I just tested my PC and router with a "Kill A Watt" meter. PC was 55W. Router was 15W, so total = 70W

PC is HP EliteDesk with i7-7700 CPU, 1 SSD, and 2 spinning hard drives. Running only Blue Iris and an anti-virus program. Monitor is not included in the 55W figure.

Router is ASUS with integrated Wifi radio and integrated Gigabit switch (no PoE ports.)
 

fenderman

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As a point of reference, I just tested my PC and router with a "Kill A Watt" meter. PC was 55W. Router was 15W, so total = 70W

PC is HP EliteDesk with i7-7700 CPU, 1 SSD, and 2 spinning hard drives. Running only Blue Iris and an anti-virus program. Monitor is not included in the 55W figure.

Router is ASUS with integrated Wifi radio and integrated Gigabit switch (no PoE ports.)
what is the cpu load on the pc?
 

nuraman00

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As a point of reference, I just tested my PC and router with a "Kill A Watt" meter. PC was 55W. Router was 15W, so total = 70W

PC is HP EliteDesk with i7-7700 CPU, 1 SSD, and 2 spinning hard drives. Running only Blue Iris and an anti-virus program. Monitor is not included in the 55W figure.

Router is ASUS with integrated Wifi radio and integrated Gigabit switch (no PoE ports.)
What do you think the load on the PC would be if it weren't running any cams?
 

NVR990

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What do you think the load on the PC would be if it weren't running any cams?
I just manually disabled each of the cameras in BI. With all cameras disabled, and BI still running, CPU load was between 0%-1%.
 

bp2008

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I'm pretty sure he meant idle power consumption when he said "load".

Kind of a pain in the ass to measure though since it involves shutting the machine off a few times.
 

NVR990

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I'm pretty sure he meant idle power consumption when he said "load".
Without BlueIris GUI (or service) running (but with anti-virus software), power draw from the PC is roundly 18W.

Oddly, there seems to be little difference in power draw between 1) BI service ON (monitor off) and 2) BI Full GUI ON (also with monitor off). Both are roundly 54W-55W.

Perhaps when monitor is switched off, BI detects that there is no display connected, and "knows" not to send signal for GUI, thereby approximating the power-consumption of the service mode??

Even more confusing is that the PC CPU cycles (as observed via the BI app) drop from about 18% to about 12% when I exit the GUI on the PC. Because of this, I would have expected more of a PC wattage consumption difference between "service" and "GUI" modes.
 
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nuraman00

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I'm pretty sure he meant idle power consumption when he said "load".

Kind of a pain in the ass to measure though since it involves shutting the machine off a few times.
Yeah, I meant power, not CPU consumption.
 

nuraman00

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I'm cross-posting this from another thread.

I've plugged in:

Router, modem, landline phone, and Tivo. This takes 36 - 39 Watts.

I couldn't plug in the Ooma because the shape of the plug blocks too many outlets. So that's in my old surge protector for now.

This seems pretty good, pre-NVR.

I might get another APC later for the PC, monitor, and Ooma.

I have 2 empty battery backed outlets, which would be good for the NVR, and maybe a network switch if I ever get one. Hopefully the switch doesn't have a weird shaped plug that blocks outlets.

I ran into some problems because my network wasn't recognized anymore after plugging in the router and modem into the APC.

It kept saying "unplugged".

After about 45 mins of trouble shooting, I figured out that one of the new Ethernet cables I used in this expanded setup was defective. I swapped it with another cable, and everything worked. At first, I thought something was wrong with the APC Ethernet ports, so I tried to plug in the cables the way they were before, without the APC. When that wasn't working, tried each of the new cables I had used today until I figured out which one was the bad one.

How do I see the APC runtime with the current load? Even after plugging in things today and having a load, it still says 179 minutes. That can't be right, because that's what it said before I plugged in things.
 

nuraman00

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nuraman00

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Good idea, I have a few of those to spare. Is it ok to plug in something that uses two prongs, into one of those?
I just tried my cable modem, which uses 2 prongs, into both of those 3 prong extensions that I have. The cable modem plug wouldn't fit into either one.

I guess I need a proper 2 prong extension.
 

smoothie

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Can I plug an extension cord into it, so I can connect multiple devices at the same time?
Yeah you can. I have mine plugged into a power strip then have my UPS plugged into the Kill-A-Watt. My NAS, PoE Netgear switch, Blue Iris PC and a few other things are plugged into the UPS. The nice thing about having the Kill-A-Watt connected between the UPS and the wall socket is you can just unplug the UPS from the wall, the UPS will beep since it has lost utility power and will run off the batteries, plug the Kill-A-Watt into the wall and then plug the UPS into the Kill-A-Watt. If you do this keep in mind you will have a slightly higher power reading for a brief time after reconnecting the UPS to the Kill-A-Watt as the UPS will draw additional current to recharge the battery.

Ultimately all the Kill-A-Watt does is measure the power flowing thru it, so you can plug in one device or a power strip with many devices or whatever you like. The upper limits for the USA variant of the Kill-A-Watt is 15 amps (ampere) and/or 1875 VA (volt-ampere). Most standard US households have 15 amp circuits which means about the same time you are over loading the Kill-A-Watt you are probably going to trip the breaker or fuse box for that circuit. So basically if you can plug all your equipment into 1 power outlet on the wall then you can also plug the Kill-A-Watt between the wall and all that equipment to measure it. If your equipment goes into more than 1 wall outlet just connect the Kill-A-Watt to each in turn, write down the readings for each and then add them up to determine your total power consumption.

One of the best things you can do with a Kill-A-Watt is find "power leakage". Some power strips and other devices can draw current even when nothing is plugged into them. Cell phone chargers for example as well as just empty power strips can draw power when not in use thus costing you money for zero use or benefit. The draw is often small but if you have many such devices it can add up quickly. You will be amazed how many things draw significant power when they are "off" such as DVRs for cable and satellite TV recording.

The Kill-A-Watt also allows you to program your cost of electricity as cents per KWh. So once that is programmed the Kill-A-Watt will calculate the dollar cost of the power consumption of the device and even project it into the future, the longer you leave the Kill-A-Watt on that device the more accurate the results. For example if you plug the Kill-A-Watt between your refrigerator and the wall 24/7 for a week you will get a pretty accurate cost of running your refrigerator displayed in $xx.xx format.

The Kill-A-Watt has a normal NEMA 5-15P on the back and a normal NEMA 5-15R on the front.

The NEMA 5-15P/R is the modern standard power plug for the USA. The "P" stands for plug and the "R" stands for receptacle, meaning the "P" side has the prongs that stick out like any electrical device and the "R" side has the openings just like a wall socket where you can plug in a "P" device.

The Kill-A-Watt also comes in a variety of international configurations so if you live outside the USA there may well be a Kill-A-Watt that is correct for your national electrical standards or at least a different brand that is compatible.
 
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