APC UPS's draw excessive power when in charge mode (e.g. 12 amps)

[Anonymous user]

This is what my landlord is telling me in response to me complaining about the circuit breaker that we share with another office blowing.

I have measured the wattage being used on our two office plugs using my "WattsUp" meter to be 500 watts on one plug and 200 watts on another.
On the 200 watt load plug we have an ES 750. On the 500 watt load plug we have two Back-UPS XS 1300 and one Back-UPS RS 1200.

I had never heard of this bit about UPS's drawing excessive power when in charge mode, like 12 amps each.

Please tell me it is not so and that my landlord is grossly misinformed before we get thrown out on the street.

Thanks
Archie Campbell

[Anonymous user]

He is misinformed about it. There is no way your UPS is drawing so much power.

What is his allegations? Tripping circuit breakers or excessive waste of power? And what are his tools used to measure it and where is he measuring it?

Plug both of your UPSes on the Wattsup and show him your units do not draw that amount of power he is thinking they do.

Message was edited by: rau

[BillP]

a UPS of this size has a battery charger power of 6 watts. yes, 6. so agreeing with rau, he is severely misinformed. the UPS itself is rated for a MAX of 12 amps per the 80% rule of a 15 amp circuit. there is no way the UPS is drawing more than 12 amps because it would certainly tell you its overloaded, etc

let us know if theres any other things besides what rau said that you have questions about.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks for both replies.
I will tell my landlord that, yes I was correct and he was grossly misinformed.

Now I am a bit wiser.
Its nice to know that the charging power of the UPS's is only 6 watts each.
This confirms the readings I was getting on the WattsUp meter.

I am thinking that what he was reading was the maximum capacity of the unit, the maximum amount of power that you could run through it if you so desired.

Thanks again for the replies.

Archie