The electronic devices you rely on every day for communication, security and entertainment are at risk for damage and failure due to unexpected blackouts, voltage fluctuations or other power disruptions. A UPS provides battery backup power and protection for electronic devices, including: wireless networking equipment, computers, televisions, security systems, gaming consoles, mobile devices. Going through the passage of UPS Buying guide, you will know more details about the UPS systems and how to buy UPS battery backup.
Basically, UPS is a battery backup power system that supplies power long enough for equipment to properly shut down when utility power fails. It helps prevent loss of data and minimizes the stress a hard shutdown causes on your electronic equipment. In order to protect your computer against power supply interruptions, you need a battery backup. UPS units are like power strips that contain a big battery inside, providing a buffer against power supply interruptions. This buffer can range from a few minutes to an hour or more depending on the size of the unit. As long as the electricity stays on, UPS systems supplies conditioned utility power to its outlets and keeps its internal battery charged. It also protects your valuable devices and data from power problems, such as power surges and abnormal voltages. If the power goes out, the UPS system provides backup power from its internal battery. It allows your equipment to stay on during a power outage, which is especially useful for devices like computers that can lose data when they turn off unexpectedly.
First, think about all the systems in your home or office that need the extended power protection supplied by a UPS unit, to stay online in the event of power outages, or both. Every reader will have a different setup, for the sake of example; we’re going to use our home as a template to help you think about all the varied power needs found in a typical residential setting. Between the aging electrical grids, rising power demand, severe weather, faulty wiring and disruptive devices connected to your AC line, your equipment is under constant threat from power problems. In case of a blackout, the UPS switches immediately over to battery power to provide a continuous power source for the length of the battery. A UPS helps prevent this from happening. The battery backup gives you time to power down sensitive equipment, servers, or even video game consoles without loss of data or progress.
At the bare minimum, you need enough juice in your UPS unit to give your computer system adequate time to shut down properly. That’s the absolute acceptable minimum. If your UPS unit doesn’t have enough juice to provide for the system from the moment the power cuts out until the moment it has successfully shut down, you’re risking damage to the machine and data loss. So how can you calculate the power needs of the system? The first step is examining the core system and peripherals you wish to keep on in the event of power loss. In the case of our home server, we don’t need to calculate the peripheral load because there are no peripherals. On the other hand, our two computers do have peripherals like monitors, external hard drives, and so on. In the case of a power outage where you’re working at the computer, it’s worthwhile to have the battery also supply the monitor so you can interact with the machine. Don’t neglect to include the power load of peripherals when calculating your needs. Regardless of whether you use the less precise or more precise method, you’ll have a wattage value. For our calculation examples, we’re going to use 400w as our value.
UPS systems perform three vital functions: providing battery backup during power outages, regulating abnormal voltages and protecting equipment from surges and line noise. We will explain UPS Buying guide in details through below three key features.
As long as electricity stays on, the UPS system provides utility power to the devices connected to its outlets, keeps its internal battery charged and protects equipment from power problems. During an outage, the UPS system keeps connected devices functioning by supplying electricity from its internal battery.
The battery backup runtime of the UPS is the estimated time it will keep connected equipment powered during an outage, without an opportunity to recharge its batteries. Runtime varies depending on the size of the UPS battery and the wattage required by the connected equipment, as well as factors like efficiency, room temperature and battery age.
In the event of an extended blackout that exceeds the backup runtime of the UPS, battery backup provides an opportunity to shut down computers properly and prevent data loss. Automatic shutdown is also available for unattended computers. For applications where shutting down is not an option, many network and mission-critical UPS systems support increasing battery capacity to extend runtime from minutes to hours.
The three main types of UPS designs accomplish this in different way.
Standby UPS systems switch to battery when they detect abnormal line voltages. This protects equipment, but only as long as the UPS system’s battery backup runtime lasts. In locations with frequent voltage problems, frequent switching to battery and associated recharging cycles can also shorten the lifespan of the battery.
Line-interactive UPS systems include a feature called automatic voltage regulation to correct abnormal voltages without switching to battery. The UPS system detects when input voltage is too low or too high and automatically boosts or reduces the voltage by a set percentage before passing it to connected equipment.
On-line UPS systems use a technology called double conversion to provide the strongest protection against abnormal input voltage and the most precise regulation of output voltage. The UPS continuously converts AC input power to DC power, and then converts the DC power to high-quality AC output power for connected equipment.
Destructive transient voltages, disruptive electromagnetic, and radio frequency line noise are built-in surge suppression and noise filtering shields equipment. The UPS provides the functionality of a surge protector without requiring a separate protective device. Some UPS systems also include data line protection to protect equipment from surges on phone, Ethernet or coaxial lines.
The UPS battery’s main function is not only to cover the gap between power failure and backup power, but also can serve to make your system more reliable under normal conditions. That is because the UPS has to be ultra sensitive to fluctuations in the incoming power supply in order to respond immediately when power drops out. To sum up, if you are in an area with unstable power supplies, such as a field office or rural hospital, the UPS may serve to keep power level during turbulent dips and spikes from your main power source. In this case, the UPS actually hands off responsibility to your backup system, but it does play an important role by providing short bursts of power to fill gaps before things return to normal. This is possible when the UPS device is installed between your main power source and the equipment is protecting, so that it will be the first point of reference if power fails. This setup also allows the UPS system to constantly recharge its own battery in mini-cycles as it works. Many power problems originate in the commercial power grid, which, with its thousands of miles of transmission lines, is subject to damage from weather variations such as hurricanes, lightning storms, snow, ice, and flooding, as well as equipment failure and traffic accidents.
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