diff --git a/STATUS.md b/STATUS.md
index bdea609..099e16c 100644
--- a/STATUS.md
+++ b/STATUS.md
@@ -85,8 +85,10 @@ infrastructure, Proxmox cluster ops, and k8s control plane.
   Needs physical reseat to direct motherboard USB port or cable replacement.
   Driver masked to prevent restart-loop spam.
 - [ ] **Home Assistant NUT integration:** configured and live (3 sensors:
-  battery charge, status, status data). Additional sensors populate as UPS
-  reports more variables.
+  battery charge, status, status data). This APC (FW 02.2, mfg 2012) does not
+  report `ups.load` over USB HID — confirmed via both NUT and apcupsd tests.
+  No wattage for Energy Dashboard; smart plug on UPS output is the practical
+  path. apcupsd package conflicts with nut-server (mutually exclusive).
 
 ### Console Management (ser2net telnet(rfc2217) + conman on pfv-tsys4 — LIVE)
 - [x] 7 network switch/router consoles managed via ser2net + conman
@@ -166,7 +168,7 @@ infrastructure, Proxmox cluster ops, and k8s control plane.
 - **Friday maintenance:** tsys4 (PCIe NIC + RAM), tsys5 (2nd CPU candidate, NVMe, 2nd ethernet)
 - **PDU:** Rename outlets in powerman.conf (Friday onsite)
 - **k8s deferred:** ETL tooling, HPC scheduler, vcluster policy, solar-aware scale-out
-- **UPS:** APC Smart-UPS C 1500 operational via NUT on pfv-tsys1. HA NUT integration live (battery charge, status, status data sensors). Tripp Lite blocked on HID report descriptor (USB hub/cable issue — try direct motherboard port).
+- **UPS:** APC Smart-UPS C 1500 operational via NUT on pfv-tsys1. HA NUT integration live (battery charge, status sensors). No ups.load over USB HID (firmware limitation, confirmed via apcupsd test). Tripp Lite blocked on HID report descriptor (USB hub/cable issue — try direct motherboard port).
 
 ## Infrastructure Summary
 
diff --git a/ups/README.md b/ups/README.md
index a83336b..5ee3b0f 100644
--- a/ups/README.md
+++ b/ups/README.md
@@ -184,8 +184,7 @@ upsc -l pfv-tsys1
 # Full variable dump for one UPS
 upsc apc-smartups-c1500@pfv-tsys1
 
-# Just the live load + runtime
-upsc apc-smartups-c1500@pfv-tsys1 ups.load
+# Battery runtime (the only runtime/charge data this UPS exposes)
 upsc apc-smartups-c1500@pfv-tsys1 battery.runtime
 ```
 
@@ -194,6 +193,18 @@ upsc apc-smartups-c1500@pfv-tsys1 battery.runtime
 - **No USB passthrough to the HA VM.** Keeping the UPS on the host preserves
   hypervisor graceful-shutdown capability and matches the `powerman/` pattern
   (PDU managed on the host where the adapter physically lives).
-- **Per-unit power (Watts):** `usbhid-ups` reports `ups.realpower` directly on
-  the APC Smart-UPS C 1500. If absent, derive Watts as
-  `load% × VA_rating × power_factor` in HA templates.
+- **No `ups.load` / `ups.realpower` on this UPS (FW 02.2, mfg 2012):** The
+  APC Smart-UPS C 1500 does not expose load or power data over USB HID.
+  Both NUT `usbhid-ups` and `apcupsd` (USB mode, tested 2026-07-30) read the
+  same HID descriptor — the variable simply isn't there. This means the HA
+  NUT integration provides **battery/runtime/status sensors only**, not
+  wattage for the Energy Dashboard.
+  - **apcupsd test note:** Debian's `apcupsd` package conflicts with
+    `nut-server` (mutually exclusive). apcupsd USB mode returned `COMMLOST`
+    even before we could check load. The APC Smart Serial protocol (serial
+    cable, AP940-1524C, ~$30) DOES report load%, but this requires a serial
+    port on the UPS and on the host.
+  - **Energy Dashboard path:** A smart plug (Shelly Plug S / TP-Link Kasa,
+    ~$15-25) on the UPS output reports real watts natively and feeds the
+    Energy Dashboard with zero UPS-driver hacking. The NUT sensors remain
+    valuable for outage detection and graceful-shutdown automations.