UPS, Uninterrupted Power Source is used to safe guard your valuable pieces of equipment. It does this by providing clean regulated power through the use of surge protectors and power filters. This assure clean and reliable power while protecting your vintage equipment.

Surge Protectors and Power Filters are added protection and can protect all downstream loads from surges. They are mounted next to the electrical panel and divert surge energy to ground. To prevent noise on the line, isolation transformers can be added to remove unwanted noise and ensure correct operation.

Typical Power Problems Include:

	Blackouts - No Power
	Brownouts - Voltage dips and lights dim. This can cause hard drives failures in computers.
	Surges - Often caused by lightening or switching by the utility company.
	Noises - This is subtile power problem that there are usually no visible signs of a problem, but can cause random hardware failure.

UPS is a general term used to describe a battery backup system for computers and other sensitive electronic devices. There are many different types of UPS systems suited for a variety of applications.

	Stand-by UPS system. Typically used for desktop or home computers. It has some power filtering, surge protection, and battery backup. When power goes out or a brownout occurs it switches to the battery backup.
	Line Interactive UPS System. Similar to stand-by system in the exception it offers more advanced voltage regulation to handle sags and over-voltages without going to the battery backup. This type is used mostly for computer equipment.
	True Online UPS Systems. These systems provide a complete power protection and are constantly cleaning and filtering the incoming power. This provides clean power regardless of the incoming power source. This type of UPS is used for computers, lap equipment, and industrial applications.

Devices you may wish to backup with a UPS unit.

	The Computer Chassis including all its contents, such as power supply(ies), internal fans, motherboard, processor, video card(s), hard drives, optical drives, and etc.
	The Monitor Load
	External Modem
	Hub, Switch, or Router
	Power Speakers
	External Ports (USB,Firewall,Thunderbolt) and peripherals
	Any other device that may required a backup.

There are many available UPS units in the marketplace. They range from consumer to enterprise grade. Some are designed for specific systems while others are design for general use. They include but not limited to the following.

UPS System By Applications

	Audio/Video (Design to protect sensitive home theater equipment against damage such as blackouts, brownouts, surges, and line noises. They include: Protection for HDTVs, satellite, and cable receivers, BluRay players, and DVD)
	Desktop (Design for desktop computer, network workstations, and who variety of home & professional electronics.)
	Hot Swap (Eliminate downtime during UPS repair or replacement using detachable PDU with manual bypass switch)
	Medical Grade (UL 60601-1 compliance for electronics in patient-care areas. Medical Card UPS system design for medical equipment, such as respirators, and EKG machines as well as computers and imaging equipment.
	NAFTA Compliant (Battery packs that meet NAFTA (North American Fair Trade Agreement.)
	Data Center
	Network Servers (Intelligent/network grade protection design for data centers, server rooms, network closets, and wide variety of professional network applications. Protects networks from blackouts, brownouts, overvoltage, and surge conditions.)

UPS System By Family

	Smart Online (Provides mission critical equipment with the highest level of power protection.)
	Smart Pro (Intelligent line interactive battery backup and surge protection. Designed for network servers, data centers, and other network equipment. Automatically regulates incoming voltage. Custom Computer Consulting uses these type of systems for our computer equipment.)
	Custom Computer Consulting uses these type of systems for our computer equipment.)
	Internet Office (Provides Ultra-compact battery backup and surge protection for desktop PCs workstation, audio/video equipment, and other electronic equipment. ECO friendly outlets.)
	OmniSmart ( Digital smart USB, Omni VS an AVR Series UPS system are available in a wide variety of capacities to protect any size computer or workstation applications.)
	BC Pro & BC Personal

UPS System By Type

	On-Line (Highest level of protection available. Delivers pure sine wave power to sensitive network servers and network equipment.
	Line Interactive (Provides protection to equipment through low voltage (brownouts) indefinitely without draining battery power. Provides short battery power to computer and allows enough time for shut down.)
	Standby UPS Systems (Provide reliable battery power to keep PCs up and running through short blackouts and brownouts to allow enough time to shut down during longer power outages.)

The enclosure types include

	Rackmount - (commercial grade chassis allowing to be placed into rackmount.)
	Tower - (a vertical enclosure that contains readouts)
	Space Saving (Ultra Compact) - (allowing to fit almost anywhere.)

To select the appropriate UPS for your specific environment, Custom Computer Consulting can assist you in determining the needed UPS system. This is accomplished by taking a site inventory of everything you wish to have backed up. . We will need to have access to your equipment and any user manuals. This is important as it will give us spec information such as wattage (watts) and amperage (amps). This information can be usually obtained on the products information tag as long as it is readable.

Custom Computer Consulting Uses The Following Criteria

I. Selecting A Type Of UPS

	User Site Voltage
	Operating Voltages
	Determine the PURPOSE for an UPS?
	Determine the FACILITY Power Requirements?
	Determine Critical or Non-Critical environment?
	Desire runtime during power fail? (Hours:Minutes)
	Extra Power for future expansion in increments (10%-30%) power increases.
	Do you require a rack mountable UPS?
	Do you require a redundant solution?
	Do you require an online protection?
	Do you require a USB solution?

Factors that effect the operation of the UPS

II. Runtime Information
Runtime is measured in full load and half-load. This is based on the overall WATTS needed by your computer and other devices that may be plugged into the UPS. Formulas can be used to calculate time but it is only a theory. Batteries degrade over time, the only real purpose is to provide enough to save all important work and initial shut down protocols. There are units available for longer period of times but are very expensive. In most case, if true power backup is needed a generator would be the best answer for long periods of block out. There is no affordable UPS that will survive under load for more than an hour.

III. Software Information
Many UPS units support some form of power management software which allows you to interface your computer or network directly to either a single or multiple UPS devices. This will allow you to manage and monitor more than one UPS per system giving the ability to customize alert perimeters for different events, and network power control from any web browsers.

IV. Power Factors To Take Into Consideration
It is necessary to calculate the amount of UPS power needed to supply to your equipment in the event of a power failure. In case a amount of variation is probable due to the length of time the battery will hold the system on line, efficiency of the power delivery, brand and model of unit, spikes, surges, and other outside factors. UPS Runtime (AC WATTS, Block Voltage, Number of Blocks Most batteries being installed are 12 volt 7ah, 9ah, 12ah, Each battery contains 6 cells.

• Power Calculation
  First the Required Voltage must be determined. By default it is 117Volts. Other values can be 207v, 220v, 230v, 240v, and 450v.
• End of Discharge Point
  At what point will the UPS switch off? A normal 12V lead acid battery contains 6 cells each of a nominal voltage of 2V (6x2V=12V).
• UPS Efficiency
  The inverter efficiency. The inverter is used to convert the battery DC power into AC power. There is loss associated with this. The better the inverter, the less these losses are. If unable to determine, use a worst case and say 80% efficiency. This means that every 100 Watts provided to the load, the batter will need to provide 125W.
• The Load Power Factor
  The resistive. Only WATTS are needed.
• Amps or Watts Method
  Two methods of calculating runtime. The AMPS method is used for long term dischargers while the WATTS method is used for short term discharge.

Calculation (i.e.)
Taking into account your computer load with a number of ancillary devices. We multiple the ampere draw with the main voltage. We then take the UPS inverter rating from the manufacture to determine the amount of power from the battery required to deliver the needed WATTAGE. You then (1645/0.9 =1828W). We take the battery load (1828W) and multiple the number of batteries (6x8=48) and divided by the battery load (1828/48=38) to get the WPC per cell (38Wpc).

V. Installed Standard Brands
Triplite & APS

CCC - Service Time
An On-Site evaluation will be required on to determine what the client wishes to have battery backed up.. It usually takes only 30-munites but a standard allocation is 60-minutes.

CCC - To Schedule a Service (Select the appropriate ICON from the sidebar)

Last Updated on: 03/25/2015 13:11