NetBotz 250: Need help to determine the future Power Consumption of my Rack Monitor

[rf2019]

Hello,

I am working on the estimation of the power consumption of my future Rack Monitor NetBotz 250.

The NetBotz 250 will be equipped with 3 sensors (2 doors intrusion sensors and 1 hygrometry/humidity sensor).

Based on the datasheet I got, I came to the conclusion that the Power Consumption will be around 98.5W. I think this figure is a little bit too high.

Can anybody help me compute this future Power Consumption?

I thank you in adance.

Best Regards,

Raphaël

[Christiann]

Today's data centers consume huge amounts of power. Devices have a rating based on the amount of amps they can use or support.  Every rack deployment will have different power needs based on the servers it contains. power and space, not only raising existing costs but potentially constraining future growth.

tellpopeyes

[rf2019]

Hello,

Happy New Year !

So are you saying that the figure I have found does not seem too high ?

I admit I have some reserves because this would mean that the NetBotz has a power consumption higher than a 24-ports Ethernet Switch used at full capacities.

Regards,

Raphaël

[GavanOB]

Hi Raphaël,

Ignore the previous post, I've flagged it as spam.

I would put your power use at sub 25 watts, the easiest way to know is to temporarily connect a power monitoring device, (I have a few household smart plugs with the feature built in.)

I don't recommend using a metered PDU as the power consumption of the 250 is so low it falls below the PDUs margin of error.

-Gavan

[rf2019]

Thank you Gavan.

I would like to know how you computed the 25W.

Regarding the power consumption measures, I am not sure I have such a monitoring device.

I will have to look into that.

Regards,

Raphaël

[GavanOB]

It's not something that I worked out...

I just know from experience and reading enough technical documents. 😅

Devices like that are easy to come by, this is not a recommendation but I personally have a TP-Link HS110 with that feature (25 euro), there is also far more accurate devices but the power consumption of a nb250 is so low that it could be a rounding error in most environments.

-Gavan 

[Shaun]

Hi Raphaël,

The manual for this product gives the maximum inlet current (page 27) as "10A (Defined by Switched Outlet Load + 0.25A)" - so that's 0.25A for the bot itself, plus up to 10A for the switched outlet (obviously entirely dependent on if/what load is attached to that outlet).

So I'd also assume 25-30W, depending on whether they've reached that 0.25A at 100V (the lowest input the bot is rated for) or 120V (US typ line voltage).

It should be noted all figures given in the manual are maximums and not typical consumption.

[rf2019]

On my side, I found 98.5W

Because I considered:

• Power consumption of the Rack Monitori NetBotz alone: the 0.25A consumed at 250V (I am in Europe)
• Power consumption of 3 sensors: 1A consumed at 12V by the outputs

0.25A x 250V + 3 x (1A x 12V) = 98.5W

Does it mean I should not consider a potential additional power consumption of the sensors, when I compute the power consumption of the NetBotz fully equipped/connected ?

Best Regards,

Raphaël

[GavanOB]

Hi Raphaël,

Power in Europe is normalized at 230v but unless your in the UK (where it's 240v) it's actually 220v.

The point that Shaun was trying to make is that the bot is rated for .25A because it can work at both 110v and 230v.

Maximum power consumption and actual power consumption are not the same thing.

For example:

I have a 500w PSU in my computer but it only pulls 300 watts at full load and 90% of the time it pulls closer to 60w.   

I really don't think a sensor consumes 12 watts either.

-Gavan

[Shaun]

Hi,

I'm curious where you'd seeing 1A per sensor?  The only value I see that resembles this is 1A@30V on the output relays - which isn't their consumption, it's the switching capacity.

I would assume the 0.25A at the inlet to be the entire power budget, as anything it consumes (or supplies) has to come in through that inlet, so will contribute to the maximum.

(Personally I wouldn't assume it consumes 0.25A at 250V either, else it'd consume 0.625A at 100V and the listed maximum would be wrong - but I realise that unless we can provide an actual figure in watts, all we can do is a worst-case with the numbers provided)

[rf2019]

I guess I have read it wrong. I mixed up the 12Vdc with the 30Vdc associated to the outputs.

I do agree with you that nothing is better than measuring it on the Rack Monitor. However, I cannot do such a thing at the moment. I do not have the tools, nor the ability (thanks CoVid) to measure it.

Therefore, I need to compute it. This is true that I have to put myself into a worst case scenario.

Therefore, it means that the values indicated (0.25A @230V) are for the NetBotz alone, while the 1A @30V are for each output (sensors output).

But 147.5W is too high and not realistic. It is almost equivalent to a Power Consumption of a high performance signal processing computer...

On the other hand, I am fearing that only considering 025A @230V might be, in the long run, underestimating the real power consumption of the NetBotz 250, and therefore under dimensioning my Power Distribution Unit.

Raphaël

[GavanOB]

Sorry Raphael but I have to disagree with how your looking at this, because the bot works on both 230v and 110v the you need to count the maximum power draw as this:

110v x .25A or 220 x .125A which is 27.5 watts maximum.

The sensors are not separate to that all sensors have to come from with-in that power budget.

I'm not sure where your getting the idea that they are 1A sensors more like .1A (100mA) at the most, but regardless the device can not exceed 27.5 watts.

-Gavan

[Shaun]

Hi,

I'm not sure if I was clear on the sensor output - the rating of 1A @ 30V is a relay output.  It's essentially a dry contact - 1A@30V is what you should expect to be able to pass across it without damaging it.  It's not providing or consuming that 1A, it's just promising to safely switch it.

Unfortunately I can't visit our bots either right now - I'm quarantined due to christmas travel.  But from what I know of the platform the 250 is built on, I'd estimate it in the ballpark of 10W for the bot itself, another 2x4W for up to 2 connected pod150's (before you need to externally power the pods), and loose change in ancillary sensors (most sensors are 4-20mA, nowhere near 1A).

I will look for something more definitive, but we can't just add up every number on the sheet without accounting for where they come from.

[rf2019]

Thank you for your replies.

So, if I understand it well, the power consumption of the Rack Monitor NetBotz 250 is 0.25 x 110 = 0.125 x 220 = 27.5 W

@Shaun : I am sorry, but I am not sure to have understood what you explained about the sensors. Sadly, the power consumption is not present on the sensors datasheets. I must rely on the document presented by @GavanOB 

I do agree that the objective is not to add all the figures present on the datasheet, but I do not want to underestimate the power consumption of fully equipped NetBotz with its Sensors.

[GavanOB]

Yes, the maximum power consumption of the device is 27.5 watts.

In reality it's power consumption is far lower, even with every sensor port full, sensor pods added and the every feature turned on the device can not exceed 27.5 watts.

That is for the device itself, the switched outlet has a capacity of 10Amps, so 2.2KW (I don't recommend running any electrical devices at their maximum) but that is not consumed by the bot, that is just the maximum amount of power that can be made available for a device connected to the outlet. 

-Gavan

[rf2019]

So the Rack Monitor NetBotz consumes 27.5W

However, I will not use the second outlet on the NetBotz. I will use three Ethernet Sensors (2 doors detection and one humidity/temperature sensors). Therefore, I think they will not consume 2.2KW.

However, what will their consumption be ?

[rf2019 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

So to conclude, the theoretical consumption of the NetBotz Rack Monitor would be 27.5W.

This needs after all to be confirmed by physical measures, but I cannot perform them.

Thank you for everything.

Best Regards,

Raphaël