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dwbinkley

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dwbinkley

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April 9th, 2007 15:00

Determining Amperage

I have a small number of servers I am responsible to maintain.  The organization that I work shares space with multiple other organizations, Power consumption is very critical.  Dell advertises in the 2850 Systems Users Guide for example that the server uses 700w and autoranges voltage from 84-264vac.  The amperage is 10.1A.  How is that determined?
  • pcmeiners

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    Posted April 9th, 2007 20:00

    Since no one has answered....
     
    Reasonable assumption..
    84 volts X 10.1=848 input watts,700 out at full load, would be reasonable 148 watt loss (heat mostly)
     
    120 volts X10.1=1212 watt input, 700 out at full load, this would be an unreasonable loss of 512 watts
     
    Sounds like the rating is at 84 volts input,
    At 120v, the current draw would be less, about 7.06 amps
    A server power supply should be well over rated, so a server should not use any near 700 watts, eg I have a dual AMD server with a 7 disk array, uses a bit over 350 watts under heavy load, no load would drop about 25 watts 
     
    If you can get a snap on amp probe, or a multimeter with 10 amp range at 120v (plus current testing cord),  you could get an amperage load will the server operates.
     
  • dwbinkley

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    Posted April 9th, 2007 21:00

    Thanks for the info.... It seems that every manufacturer over quotes their product. Makes it really difficult to make a decision.
  • pcmeiners

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    Posted April 10th, 2007 09:00

    I find the best way is to to use a snap on amp meter on the hot leads of the circuits feeding the server room, monitor the meter a few times a day,  or  a watt meter in the same way.
     
    This does not account for the "demand factor" charges (commercial rates), which is a conciderable part of electrical rates. Roughly $25.00 per month/kw , figured by  the highest sustained 30 minute peak usage ( time period varies) in a billing cycle. Demand charges can be higher than actually electric per Kw charges. The new game by the utilites is to to hide it in the kw rates so few notice or understand the calculation. 
    Example.. Was a Building Engineer at a small school, monthly electric bill was $6500 , electric usage was $3000.00/month, demand charges were $3500.00 .