Power Protection and UPS Blog

Here’s a new way to view computer users from an article in Local London. There are two types of computer user in the world: “those who have lost all their data because of a power problem and those who are going to.” Get’s you thinking as to which camp you fall into doesn’t it ?

Yesterday saw a spate of pieces on the new technologies surfacing across the world. BMW has launched a new pixel based paint scheme for its cars so that they can avoid the Slow Speed Cameras being installed across the country. Another company is pursuing “Chip and Sing” for clients who cannot remember their pin numbers and Tescos has developed an apple with a bar code image grown into it - no more sticky labels - off course the apples were only available in trial stores across the UK up to 12:00pm yesterday.

The point though is that what seems fun now can become reality later. Take flywheels for example. You get a high mass spinning in a near perfect vacuum on frictionless barings to provide enough energy to power the DC side of a UPS during a short mains failure. Sounds like fiction but flywheels are being adopted for large UPS installations because they can offer great advantages over traditional sealed lead acid batteries.

Will we now see Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECSs) coming in for UPS that such as the new Master Plus which can be classed as energy-saving plant and machinery - one of the three ECA shemes ? It would be a nice differentiator for customers in selecting their UPS and provide end users with a further direct benefit from choosing the most efficient and environmentally friendly UPS Systems available.

A few seconds without power is all it takes for services to fall down and it can take hours to get back up and running. This is what happened to Plusnet last Thursday afternoon who lost power and services for their website and some web based services.

When Folkstone Council suffered a major power failure due to a supply cable fault, they had to resort to a generator being brought in for emergency power. The problem was that lightning did strike twice - the generator also developed a fault and the failures occured at one of the busiest times for the council - just when the council tax bills had gone out. The case shows that power problems though sometimes intermittent are beyond the control of the organisations involved.