AlexIt's not always effective to replace UPS batteries by yourself. Learn why a data center can help service this task much more appropriately.
What is a UPS?
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) by design is hardly ever meant to be used as a power replacement. UPS batteries provide just enough juice to act as a safety net for your data and hardware. With emergency benefits ranging from a few seconds to a couple of minutes of extra power.
In a power outage, a UPS acts as a backup battery system protecting your equipment as well as your data. Although it won't provide power indefinitely, it'll help keep computers running long enough for your backup generators to kick in. Providing some valuable time to at least save your work, thus avoiding a disaster at having to start all over on your projects or tasks. Many companies who do not feel comfortable with handling all of this in-house often reach out to companies that offer disaster recovery as a service to assist with planning/designing, architecting and deploying, and fully managing a custom DRaaS solution according to your specific budgetary and system data needs.
All batteries eventually need replacing as the charge capacity slowly decreases over time. It's recommended to perform maintenance on your UPS batteries once every six months to ensure they're still functioning properly.
Bad batteries may show signs of a bumpy exterior and can end up bulging right out of their sockets! This typically occurs when the circuit in the battery unit that keeps the battery charged is too high. It happens to all batteries when the heat-up and cool-down cycles fluctuates extensively. The batteries eventually end up “cooked” from high usage.
What signs to watch for when replacing a UPS battery
Checking the integrity of your batteries begins with understanding the charging voltage, temperature, and lifetime usage of the batteries. When these units stray or fluctuate outside of these parameters, it will immediately deteriorate battery life. The first step to maximizing battery life is to adjust and maintain those conditions to their optimal levels.
Many data center services can completely re-calibrate or adjust the charging circuits accordingly so that the root of the problem is addressed. Batteries should always have the correct charging voltage that it’s designed to hold before replacing them. This will help maximize the battery lifespan to meet the normal three to five-year replacement cycle, instead of the unusual five to eight months.
A few factors to avoid are:
- Pairing a charging circuit that is a few volts too high within an environment
- Batteries becoming above 85 degrees
- Sticking it in a closet or someplace that accumulates dust easily
Data Centers to the Rescue
An advantage of using a data colocation center is through remote battery monitoring services. With technicians that possess years of battery service experience, they can measure voltage as well as the internal resistance of the batteries to verify current conditions. All these factors will end up exacerbating how quickly the batteries will fail if unchecked.
A qualified technician will make sure to take a few precautions into account when dealing with these units such as:
- Have the charging circuit calibrated correctly
- Best practices for housing the batteries to maximize battery life
- Provide plenty of ventilation/cleaning to keep it in prime conditions at all times
Many times they can spot alarming battery conditions immediately within initial inspections. When problems arise, a service request follows and immediately a technician finds and replaces the batteries while adjusting correct calibrations.
Need a hand and don't have a data center nearby? Check out how to properly maneuver your way with the right mindset on how to replace your UPS batteries:
If any case, you want to have someone review every battery with a comprehensive report. Analyze not only the patterns from the battery strings, but also potential threats and trends. Knowing ahead of time is really the next step in battery care.
Try to move beyond simply detecting and responding to current problems. Eventually, you want to be able to find the problems before they find you.
Interested in moving to a data center? Wowrack has just the customized plan for you, and the experienced technicians to ensure a painless and successful migration. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you.
