Battery Backup (UPS)

What Does a UPS Do?

Consider the following situation if you do not have UPSs deployed in your organization. During a heavy storm, lightning strikes and causes a black out. You don’t know how long it will last, your staff just lost all of their unsaved work, and electronic equipment may have been damaged. If your organization utilized uninterruptible power supplies throughout critical areas, your staff would have been able to save their work, safely power down their workstations, and your equipment would have been surge protected.

In addition to allowing your staff save their work and safely power down their desktops, a UPS can also defend against surges and under-voltage. However, they are not power generators that can power your organization’s workstations through extended periods of downtime. Rather, they keep your equipment powered and running while backup power generators – if you have them – start up and begin supplying power.

Considerations

If the above information about the benefits UPSs is something that your organization finds intriguing and would like to utilize them throughout its locations, then here are some considerations for selecting the ideal UPS.

Types of Uninterruptible Power Supplies

There are three main types of power supplies, differentiated by what they do and how much they cost.

• Stand-by UPS – The most basic type and lowest cost UPS, a stand-by UPS is essentially a backup battery that can supply power when it notices that the outlet has stopped providing it or isn’t providing enough. When the outlet supplies power normally, the UPS charges the battery to capacity.
• Line-Interactive UPS – A line-interactive uninterruptible power supply is a step up from a stand-by unit and features a built-in transformer that can moderate some voltage fluctuations. While a stand-by UPS is very useful for power outages, it is not designed to deal with small fluctuations in power.