Powerchute energy usage, completely unuseful.

[BillP]

Hi,
I'm using a BR1500GI and it's a great product, really satisfied with it, it works like a charm on my APFC PSU but I can't
understand why Powerchute implements a ridiculous function like Energy usage.

I know that this feature should approximate thre real energy usage but it is completely wrong.
I have an hardware wattometer attached to the AC socket that is 99.9% precise, it says that in one month I burned 5.50€ for 34kW,
powerchute says that I burned 481kW for 76€.

My question is, I know that a software like powerchute can't be precise and can only approximate a real value, but can you tell
me how useful is a software that is wrong in this way?

It is wrong for 1500%, it says that I consumed 1500% (fifteen hundred percent) more than the real value, can't understand how APC can
implement a crappy feature like this of their software.

[BillP]

I sent the file, is there some news?

[BillP]

hi davide,

i have not used the software myself to be honest but i am not sure if DownRiver's post in the following thread is helpful to explain how it is intended to work:

http://forums.apc.com/spaces/4/back-ups-surge-protectors/forums/general/10029/back-ups-pro-500-softw...

[BillP]

Hi Angela 🙂
Nice to see you again and thanks for the answer.

Unfortunantly DownRiver says: "So all seems in order".
I can't find anything in order, I'm running the software from december and every month it is wrong from 1000% to 1500%.

As I saied I have precise hardware instruments to calculate the energy usage.
Powerchute says that I consumed 481kW when I consumed only 34kW, what seems in order?

[BillP]

Hi sblantipodi,

I'm sorry you are having trouble with your UPS.
The thread that I replied to was in relation to the CO2 emissions being sequestered by trees, so it 'was in order' for that customer. Clearly it's not for you!
Can you post the average load on your UPS in Watts being reported by PowerChute and what your meter is reporting. Also, please post what is being reported for cost for the day from the widget on the bottom left of the screen please along with the kWh? Hopefully we can resolve this for you. The figures you are seeing are not plausible at all. We'd like to get to the bottom of this.

Regards
DownRiver.

[BillP]

Thanks for the reply DownRiver.

My UPS reports an average of 130W and my meter an average of 141W.
The difference is normal due to UPS calculate only the load on its outlet, my meter calculate also the entire UPS consumption since it is
connected to the AC socket and the UPS connected on it.

Today I didn't worked a lot in terms of energy consumption and this is the energy usage reported from PowerChute for today:
totaled 18.78kW costing 3.0€

my meter reports:
2.07kW costing 0.331€

I have three BR1500GI, I noticed the same problem also on the other workstations.

[BillP]

Can you provide me with a few more data points, please?

# What is the cost of energy that you using?
# What is the widget on the bottom left of your screen reporting for cost, energy usage and CO2 emissions per day?

Thanks.
DownRiver

[BillP]

1)
0.16€ for 1 kW/h

2)
Cost rate per day: 0.50€
Energy usage rate per day: 2.91 kWh
CO2 emission rate: 1127 Kg

[BillP]

I'm sorry you are experiencing this problem. I am going to try to recreate the scenario you have and I will let you know tomorrow how it worked for me.

[BillP]

Hi,

The information you have provided regarding the cost per kWh and the rates appear OK, except the CO~2~ emissions. Is it 1.127 kg?

I ran a test overnight on a BR700G unit with firmware revision 856.L1d.D and I got the following results:
Energy usage per day: 3.64 kWh
Cost per day: €0.44
CO~2~ per day: 2.77kg
These figures are assuming a cost of €0.12 per hour, so it's consistent with your results.

I ran a load on the UPS of 151W for about 6 hours and I got the following information reported:
Energy: 0.97kWh
Cost: €0.12
CO~2~: 744g
20.3 trees to consume (usage is for the last day)
Light a bulb for: 2 days
Drive 5.3 km

So this is about right.
What I would recommend at this stage is for you to send in the energylog.mdb file so that we can examine it to see if there is something going on with your system.

[BillP]

No, the CO2 emissions was 1127 and not 1.127.

In addition the results in the lower left corner may be similar to the true value, but what about
the results seen in the Energy Usage menu under the Monitor System section of your software?

I have founded that file, where I need to send it?

[BillP]

Apologies for the delay. The problem seems to be with the database file. Our team is looking into it. Information to follow. Thanks for your patience.

[BillP]

Thanks for the reply, I will wait 🙂

[BillP]

I hope to see this problem fixed in the next version of Powerchute, anyway I can't realize how you can submit a software
that doesn't do what is used for and how APC doesn't recognized this problem after months.

[BillP]

Hi, is there some news?

[Anonymous user]

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[BillP]

no news.

[BillP]

We have tried to recreate this problem in our labs and have been unable to do so. A possible problem is that the system clock on the PC has been changed during the time that the measurements were taken.
As requested through e-mail, please re-install the software, run the tests for a couple of weeks and report back. If the problem persists, then it may be a hardware problem that we need to solve separately.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,
I can do it but I don't think it will have any sense since I have three identical computer in my office running three BR1500GI
and all computers got this problem.

I have an Intel Sandy Bridge I7 2600, frequency on this cpus change from 1.6GHz when in idle to 3.8GHz when in full load (3.4GHz + turbo boost 2.0 == 3.8GHz),
this is the only clock that change during the computer usage.

Please let me know if you are interested in the test also by knowing that I have the same problem on three different computers with three different UPS.

Best Regards,
Davide.