Published on Wednesday, Mar 10 2010 by
For many organisations, reducing its carbon footprint and increasing energy efficiency is a serious concern, and with the introduction of the latest CRC in April 2010, ‘green’ is undoubtedly this year’s buzz word, again. Unsurprisingly therefore, hardware manufacturers have been quick to recognise the commercial potential of this ever growing trend and have launched ‘energy efficient’ equipment by the fistful.
The UPS market isn’t any different and over the past few years almost every major manufacturer has brought new products to market - all claiming to represent the future of the UPS industry and offering the only option for the carbon conscious manager. The truth is, thankfully, a lot less confusing with only a handful of manufacturers offering genuinely significant improvements.
This isn’t to say UPS technology hasn’t moved with the times. On the contrary, there’s been some major improvements in UPS design and construction. The introduction of modular, transformerless UPS systems and the general innovation of electronic components have both contributed to UPSs moving up from the basement to the data centre or comms room floor. Today’s leading UPS systems are highly engineered, outstandingly reliable pieces of equipment – forming the cornerstone of a company’s power protection policy.
I say ‘leading UPS systems’ because there is such a gap between the class leading products and those which, although they may look the part, are actually more like a chromed-up old V8 – big and powerful but not very efficient. The UPS industry has a wide range of manufacturers, some utilise truly advanced technology, with significant benefits to the user, others do not. Remove the pastel green product label from the shiny new unit and in some cases all you are left with is a product offering technology superseded several years ago.
Technology takes time to develop, and the efficiency benefits we are seeing in today’s UPS systems are more likely to have been first conceptualised several years ago, when IT or procurement managers cared less about the environment and more about their bottom lines and that is the important point. Simply adding ‘Eco’ before the product name does not make it so and although there have been significant improvements in UPS efficiency it has not generally been the primary driver.
So how should a buyer identify the latest technology? The answer is to read the small print. 98% efficiency sounds great, and it is, if it can be achieved. It’s important to find out what exactly is required to meet the advertised efficiency statistics. Does it ask you to run the UPS in a way which is unrealistic or even against your long term interests? For instance, running a UPS system on static bypass, rather than true online double conversion, will marginally increase efficiency but could cause serious problems down the line.
Another area to consider is redundancy. The traditional approach, which is still being sold by some, meant supporting your 200kVA load with another 200kVA unit in case of failure. This method immediately cuts your load to 50% of capacity, with a similar effect on efficiency and is not always clearly covered in efficiency figures. Instead, make sure you choose a modular system. For instance, 5 x 40kVA modules, with one 40kVA module as redundancy. This example would increase load to 83% of capacity and dramatically increase efficiency in the process.
It is easy to make bold claims based on perfect test conditions. The only way to find out if they’re true is to ask the right questions. Only then will you be sure you are letting the right products and suppliers become your power protection partner.
This article has been published in Networking + please click here to view the article.