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Watt the fμck?

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Neper:
We've just bought and returned a Green Cell UPS that constantly draws a whopping 35 watts when it's just switched on without anything connected at the output side. Where all the energy goes? It gets warm. So much that our cats don't want to sit on top of it. And, yes, I had waited a whole day to make sure the built-in batteries were fully charged.

At our current electricity rate that would be 140 euros per year.

No mention of the standby power consumption in the published data. Now we know why...

AVGresponding:

--- Quote from: Neper on September 29, 2022, 03:33:28 pm ---We've just bought and returned a Green Cell UPS that constantly draws a whopping 35 watts when it's just switched on without anything connected at the output side. Where all the energy goes? It gets warm. So much that our cats don't want to sit on top of it. And, yes, I had waited a whole day to make sure the built-in batteries were fully charged.

At our current electricity rate that would be 140 euros per year.

No mention of the standby power consumption in the published data. Now we know why...

--- End quote ---

Not familiar with that brand, but typically a UPS is at its best efficiency when running at 70-80% of its rated load. The advertising blurb implies it's an offline type (only switches the inverter on when the mains fails).

It doesn't mention the Wh rating of the battery, but at £160 for a 2kVA unit with battery installed, I'm guessing it's not much, one of the 12V 40Ah batteries they show on the same page maybe? Assuming the battery is only being overcharged in the usual way, the charger probably isn't using more than 10 of those 35W, leaving 25W to power the control board and display backlight... it seems excessive to me too.

You might have a duff one, with the charger cooking the battery even more enthusiastically than usual. Have you measured the float voltage?

coppice:

--- Quote from: snarkysparky on September 29, 2022, 12:22:09 pm ---Put an insulating blanket on your electric hot water heater.

--- End quote ---
Does anyone have a hot water storage tank without insulation? I thought that stopped 50 years ago.

--- Quote from: snarkysparky on September 29, 2022, 12:22:09 pm ---When you shower turn the flow rate of water down to a trickle. Don't  reduce water temp ( that just miserable )  but the flow rate.  At full on most of the hot water misses the body anyway.

--- End quote ---
If you find you need a high flow rate to get a good shower consider a new shower head. Some distribute the water much better than others. A large number of fine drops is much better than a small number of large ones.

Electroplated:

--- Quote from: paulca on September 29, 2022, 02:30:21 pm ---
EDIT:  Sorry, blonde moment, I was reading the power factor graph wrong.  When the fish tank heater comes on the power factor rises.  Which makes sense as it's a 100 perfect resistive load.  Just need to work out why it's consuming 2 to 3 times its power rating.

--- End quote ---

I had one of those test tube shaped fish tank heaters years ago, worked for years then while cleaning the tank I noticed the burn marks inside the glass tube, replaced it same day, the old ones element supports had crumbled and allowed the coils to short in a few places, it probably still worked, heating faster than it was supposed to do, I wont mention another one of those that had a faulty seal, back in the days predating rcd's.

Electroplated:

--- Quote from: coppice on September 29, 2022, 04:50:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: snarkysparky on September 29, 2022, 12:22:09 pm ---Put an insulating blanket on your electric hot water heater.

--- End quote ---
Does anyone have a hot water storage tank without insulation? I thought that stopped 50 years ago.

--- Quote from: snarkysparky on September 29, 2022, 12:22:09 pm ---When you shower turn the flow rate of water down to a trickle. Don't  reduce water temp ( that just miserable )  but the flow rate.  At full on most of the hot water misses the body anyway.

--- End quote ---
If you find you need a high flow rate to get a good shower consider a new shower head. Some distribute the water much better than others. A large number of fine drops is much better than a small number of large ones.

--- End quote ---

Came across that a few months back when I replaced a Mira shower bar, the new head looked the same as the older one but despite messing with the heads spray setting, it just pissed out water, we like the fine spray so fitted the old head. I should have paid more attention to the bloody thing, they carry a five year warranty and the old one was leaking from a valve two years in DOH!

Some electric shower units have a safety blow valve, nothing more than a one shot thing that pops if there is back pressure in the hose or head, fit a head that restricts pressure and it could pop the valve so the water pours out from the base of the shower unit.

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