Do batteries in UPS absorb the surges
- Thread starter Phil2008
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Soldato
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No, surges will go to ground via the mains earth.
yes they do. Lead-Acid batteries absorb voltage spikes really rather well. UPS's also have isolating transformers as well, which help considerably.
you don't need to worry about it, UPS's are not dangerous unless you drop 'em off a building
Do ups systems work by charging a battery, which then runs the computer? If so it'll dampen spikes.
It seems likely that mains is passed straight through to the computer, while also charging the battery. When the mains voltage drops too low, the battery picks up the slack. This way would be cheaper to design, and not as likely to destroy the battery with continuous little charge/discharge cycles. It would not however improve the supply voltage.
It seems likely that mains is passed straight through to the computer, while also charging the battery. When the mains voltage drops too low, the battery picks up the slack. This way would be cheaper to design, and not as likely to destroy the battery with continuous little charge/discharge cycles. It would not however improve the supply voltage.
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No UPS in normal mode will trickle charge the battery , the mains is passed to the output.
When the mains fails the battery and invertor are switched in and mains is switched out , keeping your device powered .... for a while
When the mains fails the battery and invertor are switched in and mains is switched out , keeping your device powered .... for a while
Not for long though
Most UPS set ups have some sort of smoothing transformer or CVT connection meaning your mains voltage (whether 240, 450 or 600V) will stay constant getting rid of any nasty surges, they also as stated above trickle charge battery's that will run form 15 mins to 10 days depending on the spec and size, you would normally use 2 to have the redundancy if one fails.
Im talking from Railway/Merchant seaman perspective, i have never used one at home
you don't need to worry about it, UPS's are not dangerous unless you drop 'em off a building
Or dont lift with your knees
To the OP: Most decent UPS have some sort of surge protection built into them. I keep meaning to look into one as my dad has been wanting one for ages for his servers.
Or dont lift with your knees
To the OP: Most decent UPS have some sort of surge protection built into them. I keep meaning to look into one as my dad has been wanting one for ages for his servers.
Apparently my belkin 1200va UPS can handle 39,000,000 watts, the spec is "420 Joules, Maximum Surge / Spike - 6,500 Amps / 6000 Volts" so if you x the amp by the volts, you get how meny watts it can handle. I even emailed belkin to see if it was true, and it is. But still I have my ups plugged in to a surge protector, just incase
And yeah if the mains power drops below or over exceeds a certain level the ups will switch over to batt mode untill the mains power level is back to normal. But with the ups always monitoring the power, the ups its self uses 40watts
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UPS batteries can fail/leak. We had a power cut, and as such the UPS's kicked in, 10 minutes later power was back on etc. Down in our call centre people started reporting a weird smell, and it turned out the UPS was leaking a shed load of battery fluid, and fumes were being sucked in through the air con.
It had only been serviced/checked over etc about 2 months before.....
It had only been serviced/checked over etc about 2 months before.....
Thats terrible,, I had mine for about 2yrs now and still going strong. It has never failed to kick in when the mains power dies.
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UPS batteries generally last 4-5 years, after that their capacity will be highly reduced, and they may well start to overheat on the recharge cycle. Any fumes are likely to be caused by the battery cases melting.
I had an old UPS which the batteries had not been replaced, and at least half the batteries had swolen cells. (And the UPS was kept in an air conditioned room, so it wasnt just due to ambient temperatures).
There are also two types of UPS.. Inline, and Bypass.. Inline ups's run all the equipment off the invertor all the time, so your devices are guaranteed near perfect power. But the cost is efficiency, Inline UPS's use more power than bypass designs.
Bypass UPS's only use the invertor after mains has failed, during normal use the mains is just filtered and sent to the ups output lines.
I had an old UPS which the batteries had not been replaced, and at least half the batteries had swolen cells. (And the UPS was kept in an air conditioned room, so it wasnt just due to ambient temperatures).
There are also two types of UPS.. Inline, and Bypass.. Inline ups's run all the equipment off the invertor all the time, so your devices are guaranteed near perfect power. But the cost is efficiency, Inline UPS's use more power than bypass designs.
Bypass UPS's only use the invertor after mains has failed, during normal use the mains is just filtered and sent to the ups output lines.
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I have a few APC UPSs and they recommend that the UPS should not be pluged into a surge protector, but directly into the mains power socket...you might want to check your Belkin documentation to see if it gives any info on this for your particular UPS...
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yeh I checked i checked that, and I am voiding my warranty by doing this. But I am voiding it anyway by using 4way strip plugs sockets. But I think its safer using a surge protector behind the ups.
Apparently its because if something went wrong with the ups and you have 4ways and or a surge protector in connection with it, it 1 or both of those could have been causing the fault with the ups, so it voids the warranty.
If anyone is thinking of getting a belkin ups, the batts are a real pain to change when then time comes, but it is do able cos ppl have achieved it, I took some batts out of a buggered belkin ups once, but I did it the easy way by braking up the case, hehe.. The batts should last a min of 3 yrs tho.
Heres a pic to show you where the batts are located, Also Id recommend to slide the cover off part the way, so you can disconnect a terminal cos if the case toches the top board, its buggered
These are the batts for the belkin 1200va ups.........
http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/shop/pr...DepartmentName=UPS+Batteries&DepartmentID=178
Heres a pic to show you where the batts are located, Also Id recommend to slide the cover off part the way, so you can disconnect a terminal cos if the case toches the top board, its buggered
These are the batts for the belkin 1200va ups.........
http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/shop/pr...DepartmentName=UPS+Batteries&DepartmentID=178
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APC UPS the battery is in a easily accessible compartment & its a quick swap though not had to replace the mine in my 4-year old unit.
What I've always been curious about is if you have xxxW PSU do you have to get a similar or more powerful spec UPS?
That the best thing about APC UPS the batts are real easy to change.
About the Psu question, no you dont, yeah you might have a 600watt psu, but your pc wont be using 600watt. For a example, I have a 620watt psu but its only using a max of about 300watts when gaming.
My UPS is the 1200va/670watts version, and while im just doing light work in windows, my UPS says its 22% loaded this is cos the pc and everything Ive got plugged in the ups is only using about 120watts, so Im guessing the ups will be about 45% - 50% loaded when gaming. Only just stated using the software again on the VM using xp that I check every so often. As you can see it shows you some useful info
About the Psu question, no you dont, yeah you might have a 600watt psu, but your pc wont be using 600watt. For a example, I have a 620watt psu but its only using a max of about 300watts when gaming.
My UPS is the 1200va/670watts version, and while im just doing light work in windows, my UPS says its 22% loaded this is cos the pc and everything Ive got plugged in the ups is only using about 120watts, so Im guessing the ups will be about 45% - 50% loaded when gaming. Only just stated using the software again on the VM using xp that I check every so often. As you can see it shows you some useful info
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Those numbers are near zero protection. 420 joules means it really is only 140 joules; never more than 280. Meanwhile surges large enough to cause damage are hundreds of thousands of joules.
As long as it has near zero surge protection, then it can claim 100% protection in the sales brochures.
Back to your original question: from basic electrical engineering circuit theory is superposition. That battery simply distributes a surge to other wires. Does not 'absorb' the energy. Simple gives a surge more potentially destructive paths via any nearby appliance.
The typically UPS connects the appliance directly to AC mains. There is virtually no protection.
Why no surge protector on its output? Because the typical UPS creates surges (transients) when in battery backup mode. Power so 'dirty' as to be harmful to small electric motors and power strip protectors. And perfectly ideal power to electronics because electronics are required to be so robust. Those UPS manufacturers do not like to discuss what would contradict the myth of ‘cleaner’ power.
As its numeric specs demonstrate – its only function is to provide temporary power during a blackout or extreme sags.
The APC software tells me I can connect more devices but already have my PC & TFT monitor plugged in.
With current setup, highest reading ever seen is 260W @ full load i.e. GFX & CPU...
I have loads plugged in mine
In the batt + surged sockets, I have.....
Pc
Monitor
Router
2 external hdds
I had my a 2nd pc and monitor plugged in aswel but needs a new gfx card so its unplugged at present
In the surge only sockets, I have.......
AV amp
270watt sub
all in one printer
another monitor
All that is infront of another surge protector too...... So Im voiding my warranty big time as you can see,,
In the batt + surged sockets, I have.....
Pc
Monitor
Router
2 external hdds
I had my a 2nd pc and monitor plugged in aswel but needs a new gfx card so its unplugged at present
In the surge only sockets, I have.......
AV amp
270watt sub
all in one printer
another monitor
All that is infront of another surge protector too...... So Im voiding my warranty big time as you can see,,