I worked at a large university in the midwest for a long time and I understand what you're trying to accomplish, but there is no easy answer.

The best suggestion that I can offer is power logging. APC and a number of other solutions do can do continuous logging of power draw by port on some large PDUs. Since the current draw while idle is probably constant, then you can track usage by measuring the spikes in usage. If it were a mandate, or required by a grant, I would secure the PDU plugs into the wall sockets, make wall sockets unavailable, and secure the equipment plugs into the PDUs, so you know what device is plugged into the port, and you can graph its usage (maybe MRTG or something similar). Then when they have new equipment to install in the lab, they coordinate with tech staff.

Anyway, that's how I would do it.

It's like the blog view of every tech site I go to. Gizmodo, Engadget, etc. Can we have the option to keep the current layout? Rob

It'd be nice if people who criticize something are actually familiar with what they're criticizing. There are plenty of things to pick at in the LotR series, but this isn't one of them. Read the book. Gandalf died fighting the Balrog. He was returned to Middle Earth as Galdalf the White because he still had things to do. He was a demigod, and a bearer of one of the three elven rings of power. At least get your facts straight before you make a stupid comment like this.