Posts Tagged ‘power solutions’

APC Batteries – Do They Last Long?

For alot of people / company’s an APC battery is the foundation of their workstation. This is particularly true when your primary ups power supply is, in fact, less than entirely reliable. For instance, people who live in areas where storms are a regular occurrence. The not knowing of how long your APC battery will last, can nonetheless, leave you feeling very vunerable and insecure. To help keep your APC batteries in check we have provided a simple guide for you.

Always play safe, is an important tip to remember when relying on APC batteries to keep your computer, network or work station up and running. What this means is that you should be ready and willing to replace your APC batteries before they expire, and not after.

An APC battery is meant to be used as an emergency power supply, and as such, different rules apply than if you were talking about some double A batteries for your remote control. You can replace your remote control’s batteries when they run out because not being able to change the channel is hardly an emergency situation.

APC batteries need to be replaced regularly just as you would regularly replace the 9 volt battery in your smoke detector, whether you know the battery to be expired or not. It might or might not be expired. If it’s still working, it might save your life in the event of a fire, but if it’s not, then the only way to find out is to have the smoke detector fail to make a sound when there is a fire.

The best way to go about replacing your APC batteries is to use the warranty as a rough guideline. Most APC batteries will last beyond the warranty, simply because that’s the only way to stay in business (you won’t last long in any industry if you find yourself living up to every warranty you issue). Once the warranty runs out, you can usually expect the battery to be reliable for some time after, but it’s wise to replace it as soon as is convenient.

The warranty, then, can be seen as a “minimum possible performance” guideline. An APC battery that is made well, is only guaranteed to last as long as the warranty, but in reality, it will probably outlast the warranty.

Most manufacturers and retailers, that are reputable, will in general, will offer a one year warranty. Some may offer shorter or longer warranties, but one year is generally considered to be as long as the average APC replacement battery should be expected to last with any degree of reliability.

In short, treat your emergency power supply like your emergency safety kit. The batteries in your flashlight might still be okay, but if they’ve been in there for a year, the last thing you want is to find out they’re dead when a hurricane knocks your power out. Have power solutions to hand for your ups system before anything major goes wrong.

 

How To Find The Best Power Protecton for Your IT Equipment

When using fine equipment power protection is a must, as if it is not protected it my suffer considerable damage if their is a power outage.  By not using a power protection system you are only exposing your equipments to potential future risks.

You can find lots of eaton powerware instruments that can provide an good power solution for all your IT hardware as well as providing the required the required protection to them. The first and foremost thing that you need to work out is to arrive at the best solution that your money can buy or what you can afford to spend on it. I would avoid cheaper makes of protection as if they do fail they may trash your equipment. Excellent power protection systems are not necessarily always expensive, you can even get them for a cheaper price but beware of the cheap unknown brands because they can cost you double the price you paid for it in future.

While deciding on the most appropriate power solution, bear in mind all the facts that concern your equipments and their service. The power protection systems should be able of not only providing protection to your equipments but also give efficient backup support so that they are able to deliver their best performance. The kind of equipments you use and the extent to which they are used largely determine the kind of power solution you will ultimately require for your individual need or to meet the requirement of a large company. 

You will have to list all the demands of the various applications used by you and then arrive at a proper power protection system. This will be determined by your current needs as well as those of the future based on which it can be decided which power backup solution would be the best choice for your gadgets. The power protection system should be able to suffice your present needs as well as those in the coming years without the need for an early replacement. 

If you choose the incorrect power protection system to start with you are going to save your self a bunch and have piece of mind in with the deal. Only go ahead when you have weighed the pros and cons of each system. If you are unable to reach a decision, ask an expert and go by their advice. Check out the expert before you go with their advice. Find all you can out about a protection system with regards to its performance from other users or reviews.

Effective Use Of Power Strips In Businesses

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Power strips available to buy in Britain vary from cheap white plastic versions imported en mass, normally from China to commercial, top-of-the range, metal-encased strips that are designed to fit into 19” rack cabinets primarily used in data centres and on server farms.

Cheap power strips can certainly do the job and for domestic use (e.g. running a home entertainment system) they are probably the best option, definitely in terms of cost if not reliability. But, when used in a commercial environment such as a data centre, where there are usually hundreds of such strips providing power to a range of servers and other electrical machinery, reliability is the measure that is valued over cost.

If power strips installed in a commercial environment kept fusing or otherwise malfunctioning, just because they were cheap, it would be unacceptable. Indeed, the downtime resulting from such a strategy could be catastrophic in terms of both a loss of core business and also for the future of the data centre manager’s employment prospects!

Of course, it doesn’t always follow that the most expensive power strips will be the best, but like most things in life you tend to get what you pay for and for those seeking reliability, performance and guarantees it comes at a price. But, rather than install power strips that display no indication of their performance, data centre managers are increasingly turning to units that incorporate remote KWh monitoring with environmental monitoring.

Such units are capable of monitoring power (i.e. Volts/Amps/Power Factor) and energy use and logging the results remotely. In addition, the environment in which they are operating can also be monitored due to external sensors fitted to the unit, thus allowing users to see if there are any power spikes or troughs on the unit or in its surroundings.

Such intelligence when it comes to operating power strips is considered essential by experienced data centre managers, the majority of whom would not approve the fitting of power strips without some monitoring capability. Remote monitoring is even better as it allows the manager to be able to keep track of such units within the data centre by logging into a browser, via an in-built HTTP server. Alternatively and additionally the unit’s performance can be viewed and logged through a building or network management system using SNMP, or even imported directly into a SQL database using XML data output.

With such features available the higher cost of buying remote KWh monitoring power strips pays back for itself many times over in terms on increased efficiency, keeping both the company and subsequently, the data centre manager extremely happy!

 

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