In line with my BackUPS/SmartUPS story earlier today, I wanted to say a little something about how I "watched" it.

First, I am very pleased with my KILL-A-WATT for figuring out the real load (not needing to trust the meter on the UPS, which was reasonably accurate), so I know that my equipment was using between 290 and 340 watts.

Next, I pulled the BackUPS out into a well-lit area and plugged it in (to top it off). Then, I plugged 3 100-Watt lamps into it to generate about 300W of power use.

Then came the realization that "there's a technology for that"... originally I was going to sit and star at the meter just like I did timing out the SmartUPS 1500 yesterday afternoon (with a bit more reason, since there's no readout on it). However, in this case, there was a screen and I figured I'd use my camcorder to grab a movie of it running down so I didn't have to take readings manually or watch the clock. It worked flawlessly.

In the end, I just waited for the lights to go out, wound back the "tape" (it's a memory-based camcorder, so there really isn't any tape in it), and paid attention to the time stamp at each significant event. Then I took a few minutes to write it up and sent it off to APC.

Of course, they want me to "recalibrate" it and try it again... so I agreed, since I now have a way to make that only expend wall-clock time.