Where can you get help in choosing the one that’s right for you?

If you are in the market for UPS power protection – and this is the first time you have thought about it – trawling the internet for information can be frustrating and you could end up more confused than ever. It’s a big subject, and a specialist one.

UPS manufacturers are a great source of information but much of it is either technical (geared towards electrical engineers rather than end users) or biased towards a certain type of technology.

If you’ve already got a UPS installed, you’ll have a good idea (based on past experience) of what to look for when it comes to upgrading or replacing it. However, in the past few years the power protection industry has undergone an evolutionary process of change and development of UPS products, solutions and services, driven largely by the desire for greater energy efficiency and lower lifetime costs of UPS systems overall. Advances in technology and manufacturing have resulted in smaller, more powerful products with fewer component parts and which are more reliable and sophisticated than their forebears.

Which UPS should I choose and where can I go for objective information?

Sadly, there are few places you can get information like this for free. UPS specialist resellers and manufacturers are running businesses from which they need to make a profit and they usually either charge for consulting advice or give it for free if they can then sell you their products. You may not be at the stage where you are ready to choose your UPS manufacturer or their products so, what can you do?

As luck would have it, we’ve written a book: The Power Protection Guide – the design, installation and operation of uninterruptible power supplies, which was published in 2007. It’s available from Amazon, all good booksellers and our own estore. At 290 pages, it details all of the elements you need to think about in terms of UPS power protection – and although our publisher insists on a cover price of £28-95, it offers great value for money and may even save money for you in the long-term. Armed with knowledge, you will be in a better position to get what you need and negotiate a good price.

Covering such items as criticality, UPS topologies and designs, UPS sizing and selection, online UPS designs, building in UPS reliability and resilience, batteries and alternative UPS back up solutions, UPS and generators, UPS monitoring and remote control, UPS logistics and installation, UPS warranties, maintenance and service, the book provides a handy tool for anyone responsible for assuring the delivery of critical power supplies for the continuity of their business – whatever business that might be. We’ve purposely incorporated a detailed index to make it easy to reference and appended some useful forms and worked examples. It is illustrated throughout with clear diagrams, charts and graphs.

A couple of weeks ago, a bomb disposal team safely exploded a World War II mine, which was on-site at the Greater Gabbard Wind Farm off the coast of Suffolk. It turned out to be a 680 kilo German ground mine and an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) was brought in by ex-Royal Navy explosives experts to blow it up.

There are many areas around the British coast were unexploded ground mines from World War II are known to exist. Unlike other types of mine, or floating mines, ground mines are not designed to explode on impact, instead they employ magnetic sensors to detect the presence of an enemy submarine or ship overhead, which makes them exceptionally difficult to detect.  Areas of heavy shipping traffic, such as ports and marinas have been cleared but old mines are becoming a problem now in the light of the off-shore wind sector’s rapid expansion.

Ex-Navy and/or privately-owned bomb disposal teams are now busier than ever clearing sites for the development and expansion of new wind farms.

This article got me thinking about how important it is before any major power protection installation project to prepare the ground first with a thorough site survey. It’s extremely unlikely that land-based businesses on industrial parks or in office blocks will stumble upon unexploded bombs but you’d be amazed at how much material and information, relevant to the installation, surveys unearth.

In a tight economy, the temptation may be to either not carry out a survey at all or to massively scale it down. The installation time and costs saved as a result of the information contained within a site survey almost always far outweigh the time and costs associated with carrying it out.

A site survey will reveal all sorts to do with the complexity of the project and installation, such as logistics, environment and location and electrical installation. It covers a set of standard criterion that identify site-specific actions and information and areas requiring further investigation, all of which is documented in a formal report (a copy of which will be given to the customer for their files).

There is a long list but some of the issues a site survey can reveal are:

• The final positioning of the UPS and requirement for cranes or specialist lifting gear (stair climbers, for example).
• The existence of a low bridge on route to site and requirement to find an alternative route.
• The need for local authority and law enforcement permissions to close roads for equipment unload.
• The existence of floor loading weight restrictions (which can occur in computer rooms with raised floors) and need for reinforcement.

Nothing should ever be assumed or taken for granted when surveying a site. Wherever possible it should be completed with a site representative present, whose local and site knowledge will be invaluable. Visit our website for more details.

According to this week’s news, it’s doom and gloom for the future of food. We’re running out of wheat, rice, soya – and  curry Chefs!

That last one’s a real problem for me (he says jokingly)! Apparently, changes in the imigration laws in the UK (in particular), are making it difficult for Indian restaurants and Balti houses to source genuine, authentic and experienced cooks! Yikes! 

As far as grains and pulses go, climate change and global warming are being blamed for poor harvests around the world but an even darker threat is lurking just around the corner. Yes, you guessed it – Biofuels!

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which became law in December, mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 and almost half of that will come from grain-based (corn and wheat) ethanol. In North American this is great news for the corn-growing states that will now, I fear, intensify production but not for food for fuel, easier to produce, less regulated and (I imagine) more profitable. My worry, which I have touched on before in this blog, is that food production will suffer at the hands of politics and capital gain from Biofuel production where it is being produced to replace fossil-fuel derived products (Petrol and Diesel) for vehicles.

What has this got to do with power protection? Well, firstly, did you know that the processes currently used to produce ethanol are energy intensive and thus add to, not negate, the issue of increasing demand for energy? Secondly, biofuels are being used in fuel cells, which can replace UPS batteries as an alternative back-up source. The technology is available now and whilst the origins of the fuel may be questionable, they offer a number of key advantages: harmless emissions, longer design life, less maintenance, reduced heat output and in many cases cheaper lifetime running costs.

The Power Protection Guide talks about fuel cells and their use in UPS installation.

I was asked to write an article last week about choosing the right UPS provider and it got me thinking about all the issues  to be considered as well as the all important price. Too many business managers are forced into selecting on price when doing so could actually cost more in the long run if it results in a less than perfect installation. Does the provider understand the mechanics and characteristics of your business, for example? There is a vast difference between protecting the critical systems of a healthcare establishment and a retail operation, for example. Do they add value to the installation by offering consultancy, site surveys, extended warranty, monitoring and maintenance, and so on, which reduce the overall running costs and total cost of ownership of the equipment? Does their culture match yours? Will you find their engineers lounging about reception, smoking and loudly regaling about last night’s football or will they be smartly but appropriately dressed, polite and professional whenever they are onsite?

Price, of course, is important but it should reflect criticality of the installation as well as value for money from the UPS itself and the benefits of the long-term partnership that the provider brings. UPS is critical to continuity of operations in the event of a power failure. It, therefore, needs to be given the same consideration as any other critical equipment in my view and a provider chosen because of their knowledge, sector expertise, ability to add value and product innovation.

For more informaiton on selecting a UPS provider visit: Riello UPS 

With this year’s DataCentreWorld conference and expo approaching, I’m reminded of the difference an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) footprint can make in a data centre where every square metre must earn its keep. Had you noticed how much data centre development is happening in The Channel Islands – well, as much as pressure on building land and the constraints of a few hundred square kilometres of beautiful sea-worn rock allow! As well as the usual resilience and power imperatives, one particular comms multinational was set on the smallest possible UPS footprint. And not just because space was tight either; this particular ‘big ask’ was driven by their awareness of the commercial benefits from a 35% space saving realised by their chosen power protection installation. It’s easy to focus on savings – in this case space. But how much more positive to take a bullish gains perspective instead – and imagine the customer’s delight on realising how many more revenue-earning client racks they could get into space that might otherwise be filled with essential, but bulkier, UPS kit. It’s a salutary tale and one I’m sure I’ll re-tell more than once as I leave my footprint in Barbican Hall 1 next week.