I'm not 100% sure if the problem gets worse when the ambient temp goes up but I been having a lot of issues this week with one of my rigs going down because it's power strip keeps on tripping. So keen to hear advice from people that have gone through this as well as recommendations for power strips that can handle warmer environments a little better. Currently I am using these guys:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075RZ89XC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which I bought because it specifically says that it can handle 1875 watts of continuously load. We are running 1 EVGA 850 watt ATX PSU and 1 750 Watt HP server PSU off this, both PSU's are running at around 1/2 capacity.
The first obvious response to this is 'Duh, you're running too much power through the damned thing'. I've done my best to spread the power loads around and when I hook a wattmeter up to this strip, the combined pull of everything on it was 1380 watts. So upon seeing that I redistributing things a bit and now it sits around 1180 watts which, as far as I know, should be more than enough breathing room for this power strip but after 30-60 minutes it will trip.
Is it possible that the systems power usage spikes briefly? How big of a role does the ambient temperature play in this as the room currently sits between 35-40 degrees celcius(all GPU's operate around 67 degrees as we have some big fans on this thing)
It's driving me bonkers so any help would be greatly appreciated
The claim that it should run 1875w continuously is a lie. 1875w is the max theoretical draw from a 125V 15A circuit. North American circuits are designed to have thermal proctection (ie breaker) that clamps around 80%. Fortunately the person that made the PDU followed the laws and has the PDU thermally breaking the connection for your safety!
In reality most places in NA will have 108-121V line voltage at the wall. If you assume 120V just to simplify it and use a single number you need to run less than 1440w to be safe on your loading (note that if you have less than 120V you can run less watts before you hit your thermal limit at 80%).
Does temp affect things? Absolutely, your safety protection is designed, manufactured and tested based on providing safety by thermal shut off protection.
This is also why you don't put extension cords under carpets and other insulating type materials. They can warm up wires in a local area which won't trip the thermal protection upstream but get wires hot enough to melt plastic coatings which allow live wires to potentially touch and potentially spark potentially causing a fire.
TL;DR. PDU is cheap, advertising facts are misleading or a lie. Heat affects thermal protection devices!
