APC UPS fails. Overload

[CruisD64]

What is the best tool to measure how much power is being drawn by a UPS? I know that there are a bunch of ammeter's out there, I'm looking for something that preferably could be plugged into a socket which then would have the UPS plugged into it...displaying total wattage.

Today at work one of our UPS's failed with the AVS Trim light illuminated. It kept blinking until it was reset. I believe that the unit was overloaded. It has a maximum capacity of 980watts with 4 moderate to high load servers connected to it as well as a KVM switch and a 48 port network switch. 980watts seems insufficient to me. We have several other units with a lesser load and are planning to spread the load out between the other units, but I would like to know how much power each would be drawing so that a failure like today's could be avoided in the future.

Thank you!

 

[MrF]

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

 

[engiNURD]

You could also use APC's tool to see how much power is being drawn from the UPS and compare it with the P3's results.

 

[keenan]

If you actually mean 'AVR Trim', this means that there was an overvoltage at the input and the UPS had to step it down for the loads. Most APC UPSes will have a dedicated overload indicator (it looks like a balance with one large circle and one small one), so I don't think that's your problem.

Doesn't your unit indicate its % load on the front panel?

 

[Elledan]

http://www.apc-forums.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2454&tstart=0

AVR Trim does mean that the PSU was trying to compensate for too low input voltage and thus is unrelated to the load on the PSU. See whether it was a one-off occurrence or that it is part of a more fundamental issue with the mains at your work.

 

[CruisD64]

Thanks for all the input! I will a Kill-A-Watt and use the PowerChute software for the APC's as well!