Harsh Environment UPS

[BuckyDenzil]

Does anyone have suggestions for a harsh environment UPS unit? In June, I recorded a maximum of 118ºF and I am sure the temp drops below freezing in the winter. The current UPS, a PowerWare9125 lasted about four years before expiring recently. Some manufacturers will not even quote a unit to go into this location, any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Bucky

 

[josepablomir]

What about improving the UPS room condition? That will give you more choices. Other possibility could be to install the UPS in some other room and run the proper power lines to and from this new location.
Keep in mind that extreme temperatures produce important damage in batteries (high temperature short battery life and back-up time; while low temperature also reduces back-up time).



___________________________________
Joe
Electro-mechanic Engineering
jpm@ieee.org

 

[BuckyDenzil]

Joe,
Thank you for your reply. The room is the base of a water tower. Neither the city nor my company wants to pay for heating/cooling of this space. We did consider an environmental cabinet (Liebert Foundation), but it costs less to replace the UPS every four years. The PowerWare unit did hold up well in the poor environment. We will replace it with another if there are no other options out there on the market.

Regards,
Bucky

 

[josepablomir]

Well, if budget is the only concern and the powerware performance is good enough, then, you could keep that strategy.
But, you, the city and the company should make sure that the unit was really working properly and not just holding-on under normal conditions. Working below 32 F, is not recommended for the battery bank at al. If a power problem happens that day, the UPS could fail or hold for shorter time than expected. Same about high temperatures; solidstatecontrolsinc.com have some unit rated 50 celsius, but it is not a good idea to expose the unit to that temperature ll the time.
You should balance budget and risk.




___________________________________
Joe
Electro-mechanic Engineering
jpm@ieee.org

 

[FredWagner]

You might do some basic climate control on the room, since there is AC power - have a vent fan that would kick in when the temp exceeds say 80F, and a small electric heater that would turn on when the temp drops below 45F. You're just trying to protect against extremes, not keep a hospital room in a narrow temp band....

Fred Wagner

 

[beljunchoclit]

Just remember though. Although your UPS will be fine under these wide temperature variations >Your battery will not.