An uninterruptible power supply, also known as an uninterruptible power source or UPS, is crucial in today’s constantly changing weather. As a continual power system, a UPS provides emergency power to a load when the input power source (or main power source) fails due to a power surge or some other weather-related disaster.
What is a UPS?
No, it’s not the friendly men and women who wear brown shorts and drive around those delivery trucks.
A UPS is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power when needed most. Unlike an auxiliary power system, a UPS provides almost-instantaneous short term protection from power interruptions using energy stored in batteries. This short-term power protection gives you the time you need to start a standby power source, or property shut down your equipment.
Benefits of Having a UPS
Having an uninterrupted source of power naturally has its benefits. These include:
- Redundant UPS systems can be effective in mitigating down time due to power failures, as well as UPS equipment failure.
- Dual UPS systems and devices with redundant power supplies are most effective in keeping mission critical systems available.
- Additional UPS systems to handle other important devices such as firewalls, access points, and switches can decrease UPS loads on critical servers and extend run times.
Keys to Selecting and or Maintaining a UPS solution
If you’re considering getting a UPS for your business, consider the following key points of maintaining such a system:
- Regular maintenance and checks are needed to determine if there are controller or battery issues.
- Consider upgrading from ‘dummy’ UPS systems to solutions with network connectivity that report via email or SMS upon failures and make testing/maintenance easier.
- Make sure the UPS uses online double conversion technology. This ensures that the power being delivered to your end systems always runs through the batteries and conditions the power, avoiding brownouts and the like. Standard UPS systems do not have this, and will not protect you from the dips and surges common in today’s power.
- Batteries should be replaced every three years or sooner if your location is prone to regular power outages.
If you’d like to know more about the benefits of having a uninterruptible power supply, contact North Shore Data Services today by calling 978-988-0201 or by opening a ticket with our help desk at www.ns-data.com.
