The UPS, like all electrical and electronic equipment, requires sufficient maintenance according to the guidelines of the manufacturer to ensure optimal reliability. Unfortunately, a UPS that’s located in a harsh environment can and will fail if not properly maintained.
Businesses are increasingly becoming more reliant on their own power supplies, and a power failure can be an unmitigated disaster, not just for the inconvenience but also the potential to lose a lot of money and time. A UPS maintenance schedule, however, provides greater peace of mind that the UPS will protect equipment that it’s used for. Here are 5 reasons why UPS maintenance is important.
1. To Prevent Failure-Induced Downtime
Whether it is machinery in a production line or a bank of computers in an office, losing power to the core infrastructure of a business may result in thousands of pounds in downtime. In case the UPS systems don’t switch over or go offline, the equipment they are installed to protect could be compromised. Proper UPS maintenance, however, will lower the risk of this ever happening.
2. To Prevent Data Loss
Highly sensitive loads such as confidential and personal data stored at records bureaus and data centres are subject to damaging sags or lags in the power supply. Proper, regular maintenance ensures that the UPS keeps providing instant power and that an instantaneous switchover from the mains power to the UPS has been achieved.
3. To Ensure Optimal Efficiency of the UPS
The capacitors inside the UPS have to be maintained at the ambient temperature, cleanliness, and humidity that’s recommended by the manufacturer to ensure maximum efficiency over its lifespan. To optimise the efficiency of your UPS, keep it in a clean, dry, tidy, and properly lit area and check that all indicators and alarms are reported, logged, and recorded correctly.
A carefully structured maintenance schedule would include servicing to all the major parts of the UPS installation, the actual UPS, the battery, as well as the generator if present. During maintenance, a full inspection of the critical instruments of the UPS should be done as well as checks for correct operation. Meter readings must also be checked, recorded, and verified for accuracy, while the remote and local monitoring panel, indicator lamps, and communications channels should be checked for the correct indication of status.
4. To Optimise the Health of Your UPS Battery
If Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries are used in a UPS, they operate in ‘float mode’ where they continuously trickle charge to ensure that a full charge is maintained. If the UPS requires battery backup power in either infrequent long or frequent short cycles, it may result in the discharge of the batteries. Many battery deep discharges are likely to shorten their life expectancy. Since the UPS battery is designed as a standby option, cycling it too many times will only weaken it.
It is advisable to have your UPS batteries, such as the apcrbc113, inspected every 6 to 12 months to allow accurate prediction of the end of the battery’s working life. The inspection needs to include both load and impedance testing to provide a complete report on the health of the UPS batteries.
5. To Conduct Emergency Repairs
Unforeseen failures might occur sometimes, no matter how well you maintain your UPS equipment. That’s why it is critical to have an emergency callout service available. There are usually different levels of emergency cover available, while you may negotiate the guaranteed time within which a service engineer arrives on site after a call-out. Similarly, you may discuss and negotiate levels of stock holding.
