What is branch circuit monitoring?

Branch circuit monitoring is the most in-depth level of monitoring available on a floorstanding power distribution unit.

Knowing how power is being used is important in any IT environment, but in a large data center that requires a floorstanding three-phase power distribution unit, it is critical to the health and efficiency of the whole system. In floorstanding, or cabinet power distribution units there are three options available for monitoring: no monitoring, basic system-wide monitoring or premium branch circuit monitoring.

In most installations, cabinet PDUs feed power into rackmount PDUs, which means that it is possible to forego monitoring on the cabinet PDU because the rackmount PDUs will monitor the amount of power they are receiving from the cabinet and where it is going.

System-wide monitoring allows a user to see how much power is moving into the whole cabinet PDU and how much is being transferred out, which is a good indication of the efficiency of the PDU. Once again, when paired with rackmount PDUs with power monitoring, you can get an accurate picture of how power is being used.

For some applications, though, simply accurate is not good enough. That is when deploying a three-phase power distribution unit with premium branch circuit monitoring is preferable. This level of monitoring allows customers to get data of each breaker’s power demand on an individual circuit level. With this level of monitoring, customers can be confident that they know everything about the health of their entire IT environment.