There are certain points which one should check while buying a power UPS. View this 5 things to check before deciding to buy power ups.
UPS stands for Uninterrupted Power Source and it’s an electrical apparatus that provides backup/alternate power during power failure from actual power source. The UPS is different from standby generator or emergency power system since it offers instantaneous protection from power failure as the energy is stored in huge lead batteries or flywheel. There are certain things which you need to consider before purchasing a UPS battery which are listed below,
1. Decide the Size of the UPS Required
Before you purchase an UPS battery you should decide the amount of power required. You should only connect the UPS to equipment that requires protection from power failures which includes Emergency lights, personal Computers, backup servers, communication systems etc. You should not connect printers, fax machines, air conditioners, fans or any other device that does not impact your business productivity. You can calculate the total power requirement of all individual devices based on which the amount of power required from UPS can be derives. In order to calculate VA rating you should multiply total current for each device with local grid phase for neutral voltage. In a 3-phase system you should find the total current by adding all 3 phases. You can find the current demand from user’s manual or from electricity meter in your home. You should check with equipment manufacturer to find accurate value and generally VA rating will be thirty percent higher than current rating since some power will be consumed by equipment as well. The power factor 0.7 can be used normally to calculate VA rating.
2. Determine the brand/budget
There are many brands of UPS systems available in the market and you should device which brand and model is suitable for your requirement. Some popular brands like EXIDE, APC , MGE, Libert are widely used in the market and the quality of these products are very good. If you are going for a good brand with decent warranty and service, the cost involved will also be higher. So you should decide based on your budget and model, which brand can be suitable for your business. To know more details and find out best deals available in market, click here for a UPS battery. Once you have decided everything, check for best deals from popular manufactures and choose the one with aligns your requirements.
3. Decide the Backup Time
Autonomy time refers to time required by batteries for backup operation and switchover immediately after power failure. Size of the batteries and load consumption will determine the time requires for back-up. UPS systems having the rating of 20-30 KVA generally have internal batteries. High and medium power system with KVA rating of 3-5 will have external batteries for back-up time expansion. If there are frequent power failures in your area, then you should purchase huge batteries to backup more power and protect expensive hardware and data.
4. Decide the UPS Model and Type
Before you purchase an UPS power supply, you should determine which type of UPS you require. There are 3 main classes of UPS which include Offline UPS, Double Conversion On-Line UPS, Line Interactive UPS. Offline UPS is very cheap and simple model, which feeds the load from Main continuously. When there is outage of Main, the load connection will be shifted to the invertor that gets power from batteries. There are risks when using such batteries during over voltage or voltage spikes because of transient nature. Such models are preferred in home computers and small offices where there is no critical application. The line Interactive model also has drawbacks similar to offline model while the On-Line or Double Conversion UPS is the most expensive and offers maximum protection from power failures. The Online UPS is preferred for large business where power consumption is in range of megawatts. In this case, load will be fed constantly from invertor and provides stable voltage. In these system there will 2 stages of conversion, where the A/C power from mains is converted to DC and stored in batteries. This DC power is then converted back to controlled AC power and fed to the devices. There will also be utilities which act as backup source during malfunction of UPS. Hence, this is most secure and efficient UPS model but is expensive. Depending on your business requirements and budget, you should decide which model of UPS you should purchase.
5. Determine the Reliability
Another important thing to determine is the reliability and Guarantee/Warranty available from the UPS manufacturer. You should calculate the Mean time between failures which indicates the average time between anticipated power failures. You can ask for this information from the UPS manufacturer and determine whether this is acceptable for your business. Also check for after sale services and Guarantee provided by the manufacturer.