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UPS Services
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Power Studies
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A power
study is the best place to start when looking
into a new location for your company. It's also
the best means of determining the source of problems
in computers or computer based equipment in your
existing facility. Many IT related problems within
the network or computer hardware originate within
the facility's electrical environment. The IEEE's
standard states that any voltage in excess of
0.5 volts (1/2 of 1 volt) measured on common mode
(ground to neutral) can begin to confuse a digital
circuit (1's become 0's, 0's become 1's). This
is referred to as "electrical noise".
Every digital circuit
is referenced to electrical ground. The problem
is the National Electric Code (NEC) addresses
the electrical ground for safety purposes, not
as a "logic reference point". Buildings
are wired to this code, therefore safety is the
priority, not your computer. Less than 1% of the
electrical power generated in the U.S. is consumed
by computers.
If a vendor of a specific
product tells you that his product will solve
your problems before he knows what the problem
is, you may want to ask what problem they are
referring to. There are different types of problems
which require different solutions. A single product
will not take care of all of them. In order to
provide a systems solution, as we do, the problems
need to be properly and completely identified.
A power study can be
a brief "look - see" or it can be a
comprehensive, point by point power recording,
documented by a written report with graphs and
recommendations. Regardless of the extent of the
study, if a power problem is identified, it can
either be corrected or an equipment solution can
be offered to prevent the problem from affecting
your equipment.
If you are interested
in having a power study performed, please contact
us. We will discuss the issues with you to determine
how we would approach the problem.
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Battery/Power Monitoring
Remote and Local
Oscilloscope view
of the current (amperage) waveform produced by
a switch mode power supply. These power supplies
are in PC’s and most all modern electronic
equipment. The cumulative effect of this distortion
in a building’s power distribution can cause
costly issues in the building. Add to this the
effects of the distortion caused by some UPS systems
and the effects on the buildings and generator
systems can be devastating.
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In
today’s constantly changing environment, each
and every one of us face new problems every single
day. This is especially true in the world of energy
and electricity. We depend on electricity for almost
all of the products and appliances we use, so much
so that when the power goes out, our lives almost
cease to function.
The quality of the power grid,
now unregulated, is only going to get worse. Deteriorating
power lines, transformers and substations are not
being upgraded. New power generation plants are
not being built. New electrical products and equipment
are being attached to the already overloaded utility
grid making it even worse. There is a large gap
from where we are today and where we need to be,
in regards to power generation. If new plant construction
were to gain approval tomorrow, they would not be
built in time to make up for the new loads being
attached within that same time frame.
In order to know what is happening
within the electrical distribution in your facility
and to the condition of specific electrical equipment,
a customer would need to constantly monitor each
item and review the information continually. This
would require a fleet of electricians and technical
analysts. The advantage to this process would be
to prevent catastrophic events from shutting down
your operations. Predictive maintenance can be expensive
if used to its fullest with technicians and electricians.
It can be more expensive if not utilized at all.
The cost is in the equipment failures and shutdowns
they cause. In order to keep predictive maintenance
costs down and eliminate or reduce failures, a different
approach to predictive maintenance needs to be considered.
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Battery
Monitoring Service
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Batteries
are used for many purposes. The largest number
of batteries in place are the sealed batteries
used in Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)
attached to critical loads worldwide. The reason
there are so many UPS’ and batteries is
the universal need to keep company’s computers,
data centers, medical equipment, instrumentation,
and phones operating when utility power fails.
Since companies make a large investment in UPS’
and generator systems they want to know and
need to know the condition of their batteries
at any given point in time. The battery is the
weak link in the system and since there are
multiple batteries in every UPS, it would be
wise to keep an eye on them on a continual basis.
It is impractical to have a technician on site
full time, but not for a “virtual technician”.
If there was a way to continually monitor each
battery in a system, no matter the system’s
size, complexity or location, most forward thinking
operations, facilities, and IT managers would
welcome the opportunity to have a large burden
taken off their back. It would allow them to
focus on other issues.
Up to now there have
been hardware and software systems available
to monitor batteries locally. They can even
be monitored remotely, but the burden to do
so has always been on you, the customer. Most
battery monitoring systems are expensive and
the more costly systems require a complex and
costly installation. Initially they become the
new “toy” to help operations, but
sooner or later they become another dreaded
task. Who wants to watch a battery? Most of
the time it’s just sitting there looking
back. The time it needs to be watched is when
it’s called upon to provide power. This
is usually in the middle of the night on a holiday
weekend. Even when a scheduled load test is
conducted, the load used is a simulated load
that is not the same as the non-linear load
(your computer room). Every battery cannot be
measured at the same point in time unless you
have the same number of technicians with meters
connected to every battery.
The best way to test a battery
is to have a monitoring system connected to
each battery and collect data during an outage.
This is a real life test. Every battery is tested
at the same time with the load it is supposed
to be supporting. When this system is connected
to a remote call center and tied to a service
contract for immediate response, the customer
will have the assurance that any potential problem
will not only be identified before it becomes
a catastrophe, but a service response will be
initiated before too much time has lapsed.
By the way; another key benefit
of the remote monitoring services is the knowledge
of what battery has failed or needs attention.
In most cases when a service call is initiated,
the service engineer dispatched has to visit
the site to first determine the problem, order
the correct number of batteries in that system,
and return at a later date to replace. Two visits
and disruptions for you. With our remote service
and the optional full service contract in place,
there will be a service report generated for
the field service engineer before he leaves
for the site. He will arrive with the correct
model and number of batteries. He will also
know exactly which batteries in the string need
to be replaced. The time to repair will be drastically
reduced which means your system is up and running
when he leaves rather than a week later.
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The
Power Monitoring Solution
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There
are power monitoring devices available for the
customer. These can be purchased from a wide
variety of suppliers and installed within a
customer’s facility. At this point, the
Customer would take responsibility to collect
the data, analyze it and act on it. If the customer
is technically competent, understanding power
quality issues and the solutions needed, they
can benefit from this hardware solution available
to them.
In today’s business
environment, most people have other priorities
and responsibilities that preclude any time
investment on their part to solve technical
issues. Our solution is to provide the power
monitoring equipment along with the technical
support through an Internet based subscription
service. This service includes equipment, installation,
24-7 off-site monitoring/call center, monthly
reports, service response (through optional
service contracts), technical assistance, equipment
solutions, and peace of mind.
The system, once installed,
will continually monitor selected points within
your facility. Through this connection, any
and all power anomalies will be captured, stored,
and transmitted to the call center for analysis
and troubleshooting. Captured events will be
stored for future reference, comparisons for
trending purposes and a scaled response may
be implemented depending on the severity of
the event.
If you are using electrical
power to conduct your business and rely on computers
and computer based equipment to provide products
and services to your clients, YOU NEED THIS
SERVICE.
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