[Nut-upsuser] HP R3000XR high reactive power (capacitive)

[Marek Michałkiewicz]

The UPS from 2004 still works fine otherwise (and I can monitor it with 
NUT using the "bcmxcp" driver, see below).
BTW, still looking for a firmware update - SP54628.EXE is not available 
anywhere, even though its SHA256 is known.
But, with or without load on the outputs, the UPS itself draws about 500 
VAr of capacitive reactive power from the mains.
Has anyone else seen this?  Is this normal for these units, or just my 
unit faulty in some way?
You can see it as input current (3.6A) larger than output current 
(2.7A), at no load these readings are 2.2A and 0.0A.
But there is no high power loss, nothing is smoking etc. it's just a 
large phase shift between voltage and current.
Reactive power is not charged here most of the time, but the utility 
company reserves the right to do so if there is too much, especially 
capacitive (inductive they seem to like better).
The allowed limits are tan(phi)=Q/P in the range from 0 to 0.4 where P 
is active power in W (+ consumed, - produced) and Q is reactive power in 
VAr (+ inductive, - capacitive).
Yes, the meter here is bi-directional (and remotely read by the utility) 
as I have a small on-grid PV power plant here, to help reduce 
electricity bills.
Another older UPS (Liebert GXT2-3KRT230E) had higher power loss (lower 
efficiency), but its power factor was purely resistive.

$ upsc r3000xr at localhost
Init SSL without certificate database
ambient.temperature:   33.5
ambient.temperature.high: 55
battery.charge:  99.2
battery.charger.status: floating
battery.energysave.delay: 5
battery.runtime: 1525
battery.runtime.low: 3
battery.voltage: 137.8
device.mfr: Eaton
device.model: HP R3000 XR      3000i
device.part: 192187-002
device.serial: Y0CWJTJ536
device.type: ups
driver.name: bcmxcp
driver.parameter.pollinterval: 2
driver.parameter.port: /dev/ttyS0
driver.parameter.synchronous: auto
driver.version: 2.8.0
driver.version.internal: 0.32
input.current:    3.6
input.frequency:  50.0
input.frequency.high: 55
input.frequency.low: 45
input.frequency.nominal: 50
input.transfer.boost.high: 202
input.transfer.high: 288
input.transfer.low: 160
input.transfer.trim.low: 257
input.voltage:  223.4
input.voltage.nominal: 230
outlet.1.delay.shutdown: 65535
outlet.1.delay.start: 1
outlet.1.id: 1
outlet.1.status: on/closed
outlet.2.delay.shutdown: 65535
outlet.2.delay.start: 2
outlet.2.id: 2
outlet.2.status: on/closed
outlet.3.delay.shutdown: 65535
outlet.3.delay.start: 3
outlet.3.id: 3
outlet.3.status: on/closed
output.current:    2.7
output.current.nominal:   13.0
output.frequency:  50.0
output.frequency.nominal: 50
output.phases: 1
output.voltage:  222.4
output.voltage.nominal: 230
ups.beeper.status: enabled
ups.firmware: Inve:01.09
ups.load:  18.3
ups.mfr: Eaton
ups.model: HP R3000 XR      3000i
ups.power:  548.0
ups.power.nominal: 3000.0
ups.realpower:  548.0
ups.serial: Y0CWJTJ536
ups.status: OL
ups.test.result: Done and passed