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Smart power monitoring solutions

BT-SA has introduced a range of smart power monitoring solutions that could save households and companies money during power outages. This forms part of its strategy to create an overall Internet of Things (IoT) business environment.

Power trips, load shedding, storms, inadequate general main-tenance and bad maintenance of poles are some of the reasons why power could go out and there are many reasons why monitoring power is a good idea.

The cloud or network-managed Smart Zero U Power Distribution Units (PDUs) provide active Class 1 metering, so that clients are able to take advantage of energy metering and energy optimisation of cabinets in their data centres. The units also offer the option to add temperature, humidity and fluid monitoring sensors.

BT-SA managing director, Bertie Strydom, says companies still face challenges with the management of effective power distribution, power protection and power management in their data centre cabinets. “Making use of one of these Smart PDUs will help companies better manage existing power capacity to improve data cabinet efficiency, uptime and expansion.”

The Smart PDUs provide users with remote power monitoring and rack sensor information regarding the conditions inside the data centre via a Web interface or SNMP managed by a centralised or cloud-based management system. This means businesses will be able to mitigate risks with user-definable alarms with real-time alerts, giving them control and keeping them in the know no matter where they are.

The units also provide remote monitoring of current, voltage, power, energy usage and environmental conditions, as a result users are warned of potential circuit overloads and nominal consumption increases. In addition they offer remote power switching for emergency shutdowns or to reboot hanging servers.

Simple single-phase GSM Power Monitor PH1

The new single-phase GSM Power Monitor PH1 presents a convenient remote power monitoring solution. The unit needs to simply be plugged into any power plug, a SIM card added, SMS the number that it needs to report to and the unit will then monitor the premises’ mains power and temperature.

Notifications about the status of power are sent straight to the user’s cellphone via SMS and the unit can send SMS-based status reports at the user’s request. In addition, the simple GSM Power Monitor has front-mounted LED indicators to show network and functional statuses.

Features of the unit also include an integrated South African three pin plug, utility mains power detector (single phase), GSM unit with a Micro SIM socket that is externally accessible, an internal GSM antenna, and an internal Lithium-ion polymer rechargeable backup battery and charger.

The unit can also be expanded to measure environmental temperature in a range from -45 to 145+°C in one degree steps and also has optional connectivity to stream warnings through GPRS connectivity. Furthermore, the unit’s GSM capability has been ICASA approved.

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