energy performance on duo v1?

[techman05]

I was trying to run the number for the wattage used on my battery backup and was trying to see what the wattage of a readynas duo was. I did as an estimate that my pc's power supply is set to 110[volts] and the brick for the nas saying 100-240 volts to 1.5 amp to be about 172 watts. I've got the internal timer on and on the ups.

Is that consistent with 2 green drives.

As a secondary I'm wondering if the newer ultras have better (lower)voltage or at least if there's a better brick for a duo?

[StephenB]

I think you aren't understanding what those specs mean. 1.5 amps is the most that the brick can draw from the main AC power, not the power use of the Duo. The 100-240 input voltage range, 50-60 hz is usual for a brick; it means that the same brick can used worldwide. (the brick converts whatever the AC voltage is to the 12 volts DC needed by the Duo).

Computing watts of power from the AC specs is a bit tricky, as it depends on the power factor. It is easier to do this from the output power specs. In the case of the Duo's brick, the output power rating is 60 watts (12 volts x 5 amps max output power). Again, this is the most it can supply. Similarly, your PC's power supply rating (often around 500 watts for a desktop) is the most it can supply, not the typical.

These power supply ratings are generally much higher than the average power use.

My UPS displays the actual power draw, if I remember correctly it is about 30-35 watts when the Duo is in use. That is also what the comparison charts show (http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uplo ... n_Home.pdf). According to the comparison charts, the ultra 2 and ultra 2 plus also typically use 35 watts.

[techman05]

I didn't even notice there was more than one page and I've looked at those specs many times. All I know is that my backup has 425va and it say that's an even conversion to watts and the UPS didn't even get a chance to go off before it was off with whatever was being put out. i have it set to shut down at 90% and it still sucked it dry before the timer turned the nas on.

Is there a site for estimated votlage for other Netgear products. I keep thinking I'd like to experiment with using some inexpensive solar kit in case of emergency just like the UPS is soposed to help with (though UPS is the have time to turn off and not to use long term).

[StephenB]

I didn't even notice there was more than one page and I've looked at those specs many times. All I know is that my backup has 425va and it say that's an even conversion to watts

VA is not the same as watts, though it is true that the watts is never larger than the VA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt-ampere

...and the UPS didn't even get a chance to go off before it was off with whatever was being put out. i have it set to shut down at 90% and it still sucked it dry before the timer turned the nas on...

This suggests that your UPS is bad (the batteries do fail after a while, just like in a car) or that it has too small a capacity. Either way, I suggest you get a new one.

BTW, The 425VA rating does not tell you how long the unit will run at that load. Usually there another listing, telling you "Runtime at Full-Load" and "Runtime at Half-Load" Extrapolating from "Runtime at Half-Load" is reasonably accurate.

...Is there a site for estimated votlage for other Netgear products. I keep thinking I'd like to experiment with using some inexpensive solar kit in case of emergency...

Estimated voltage is not what you need to know. If you really are worried about a longer term emergency, I suggest you contact an electrician and have something professionally installed. The NAS wouldn't be my top priority in that situation, I would be more concerned about light, heat, hot water, and refrigeration.

[techman05]

for the big stuff we have a on wheels generator. If I know there's a big storm I turn that off in the first place as expecting it was the highest using product to the backup(still probably a bad idea to let the brick stay on but the device is off). The UPS shows in raidAR that it should have 40 minutes of power but I don't know if that's taking into effect the other devices on the battery backup. I almost bought a slightly bigger one off buy.com but it was 525 vs 425 and that had the expectation that it was going on a computer and listed the time as 14 minutes for that.

Like has been said (I think) I have the nas set to shut off in a backup option so that's what I've planned for in an emergency situation. At least all devices that plug into th back are energy star(soposed to be up to 60% less power usage when ports not in use) minus the nas though has been spoken for above.

[StephenB]

The UPS shows in raidAR that it should have 40 minutes of power but I don't know if that's taking into effect the other devices on the battery backup.

I think the NAS gets that information directly from the UPS, so it should take the full draw on the UPS into account.

Maybe test the shutdown by simply unplugging the UPS and monitoring it - putting the plug back in before it gets all the way down to 10%. Then you can gauge the battery life directly. Possibly your shutdown setting just needs to be more conservative - the UPS report might be non-linear (take a nose dive to 0 when it reaches 20% for instance).

A safer way to test might be to plug in the Duo into the mains, and connect a 40 watt bulb to the UPS. Then Raidar/NAS can monitor, and should shut down. But there should be no risk to the raid array, since the power is never disrupted.

[techman05]

Well I tried for first test to just disconnect battery backup from the wall and expecting a "ups disconnected warning" and didn't . I had set it for 90% and it took about 10 minutes to get there and it didn't shut off even after it dropped 20 percent more than that. The control panel was actively showing the drop but did nothing.

Just for fyi raidAR too a long time to get updated results from the nas even though I kepted pressing rescan every few minutes.

I am on .9-t6 so for now I'm thinking I 'should I post there and see if any others try and get the same result' ?

there should be no other signal to the nas other than "I'm discharging" right?

[techman05]

heh after I plugged back in it detected as it was going back up but not down which currently shows the percentage at 60%. That's annoying.

UPS battery is low; system will shutdown soon.
[Sun Apr 22 21:12:36 EDT 2012]