How To Choose The Right UPS System For Your Business
It is difficult to know where to begin when choosing a UPS system for your business. Whether you are a start-up business with two computers or a large business with an advanced data center, it is important that you are asking the right questions when you are choosing your backup power supply.
What Equipment Do You Need A UPS To Protect?
The first question you need to ask when choosing a UPS system is what business equipment needs protecting. These will most likely be items that are vital for business continuity, such as security systems or serves that store valuable data. Some businesses may need to backup expensive equipment whereas only a safe shut down is essential for others.
What Is The Item’s Current Draw?
Once you have an idea of the equipment you need to protect you will need to work out what its electrical draw is. You can normally find the electrical draw by looking on the label on the rear of your device, it will be listed in either watts, amps or volt-amps. If you cannot find this information on the piece of equipment itself, a google search should help you find the electrical draw you are looking for.
How Long Will Your Protected Item’s Need UPS Power For?
The item’s your business needs to protect will sometimes determine the duration they need to run for in the event of a power failure. Some businesses may require the computer to run for the whole day, whilst others may only need to perform a safe shut down. Therefore the longer the equipment needs to run the bigger the Battery Bank it will have on a UPS system.
How Important Is The Equipment You Want To Protect?
UPS Systems have three different levels of protection that they offer:
- Offline UPS systems
- Line interactive UPS system
- Online double conversion UPS system
Offline UPS Systems
Offline Uninterruptible Power Supplies are mainly for home use and act as a backup battery. If you are looking for a professional UPS system you will require another level of UPS system protection.
Line Interactive UPS Systems
Line interactive Uninterruptible Power Supplies offer automatic voltage regulation and power surge protection. Similar to the basic offline UPS systems, it will protect your equipment from power surges by keeping the power output to your device at a normal level. If the power goes out your UPS will take over. The amount of output from a line interactive UPS depends on its kVA Rating.
Online Double Conversion UPS Systems
Online double conversion Uninterruptible Power Supplies are the highest level of UPS protection. These high-level UPS systems can be used to protect equipment that is critical to your business. They have a zero changeover time as they provide a constant, pure sine wave electrical supply to your equipment. The online double conversion UPS systems are used to protect and support critical loads such as IT suites and data centers.
The Last Question You Should Answer Is; How Much Space Do You Have?
UPS systems come in a range of different shapes and sizes. Depending on the size of your business environment you may require a number of small UPS systems or you may have space for one large UPS system.
In Summary
When buying a UPS system, it is important that the cost, location, sizing, and features are going to be right for the needs of your business. Answering the above questions will help you make the right choice of UPS system for your company or personal needs.
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