Seasonic Power Angel

[Rob Williams]

Gadgets. Any geek worth his salt lives to surround himself with them. Some are useful while some are decorative while others are just...well, odd. Today we take a look at a useful gadget that just might answer some questions the next time you look at your power bill and ask yourself "Where does it all go?"

Read Matts review here and discuss it here!

 

[T-Shirt]

Nice review, answered many of the questions I had about these.
I'm definately adding this device to my "gonna' have to get one (or more) of those " list.

 

[Rob Williams]

I agree. Seems like a fun device to use to see how much wattage your PC really pushes at full load.

 

[Unregistered]

Watts vs PF reading

The reason that the two did not match was because a purely resistive load was not applied. The resistance of the resistor has nothing to do with the Watts vs PF reading.

A resistor could affect it if it is a wire wound resistor, this would have some inductance and would cause some level of lagging PF. Lagging or leading PF refers to whether the current waveform is lagging or leading the Voltage waveform.

Lagging is as a result of inductance and leading is a result of a capacitive load. capacitive is not the norm, it is usually a lagging PF which is inductive.

Evan

 

[madmat]

Your PF is how the wall sees the load. The more reactive the load the lower the PF. A load with a perfect PF of 1 is a resistive load and the reason behind using PSU's with APFC is to present a load that looks like a resistor rather than one that's dynamic like a capacitive or inductive load.

Just a quick FYI.

 

[T-Shirt]

I agree. Seems like a fun device to use to see how much wattage your PC really pushes at full load.

My computers would be a place to start, but other items that only run intermitantly (computer room A/C, refridgerator, home entertainment center, etc) could use a power audit too.
I can read a devices specs and calculate it maximum theoretical draw, but that's not what it actually uses in the real world
I even though of using 2, one on the input of the UPS, and one on the output/computer load to give me a better idea of the real power useage in a typical day/week/month.

 

[Unregistered]

How quick is the update on the wattage draw?
How many data points does it avg?
Does it show peak wattage draw?

Asking questons for could reasons...

Lets say I turn on a laser printer....peak wattage would nice to be seen
Peak wattage draw on a computer....maybe running a game shows i'm using 250w, but really i'm spiking 275w occasionaly....

 

[madmat]

I'd say it updates 2 or 3 times a second and no, there's no peak memory. I imagine it'll show up to 1888 watts which is the point where it'll blow the fuse

 

[JR PC Tech]

Hi Low range

Is there a way to determine the high and low voltages recorded over a period of time?

In other words, I want to know how well my UPS is managing the power. How low or how high did the voltage go over the period of time that I left it running.

Or do I just have to watch it?

Is there another way to do this? A diff gadget?

Thanks,

Jay

 

[madmat]

A different gadget perhaps or maybe videotaping it but it doesn't average or record high/low voltages. It does record the total KW/Hr but that's it. I wish it did what you're asking about though for the very same reason.

 

[Rob Williams]

I wonder why they don't have that functionality to begin with? That would be a wicked gadget :\

 

[Rory Buszka]

I don't think this gizmo should have received a '10' rating. True, it does everything it's supposed to, but the ultimate gadget for this application would actually be an oscilloscope with a PC input, for measuring things like transient demand and the shape of the AC waveform from the wall.

 

[madmat]

That won't tell you squat about the overall power consumption of whatever you're testing. It'll just tell you the amplitude of the waveform and the waveform shape. Just who cares about that besides geeks? No-one, besides, the Power Angel runs $30 or so, an O-Scope runs $200 and the Stingray runs $250. I have both of those sitting on my desk and without the Power Angel I can't tell you a thing about the efficiency of a PSU. The right tool for the job and an O-Scope, while interesting to watch, is not it for measuring the draw of an electronic device.