Five Leading Causes of UPS Battery Failure Leave a comment
Battery failure is the main wrongdoer at the back of the bulk of UPS catastrophes. But no matter batteries’ vulnerability to untimely failure, you don’t need to be a victim. We’re going to run via the pinnacle 5 reasons of untimely battery failure and the way you could save it.
UPS batteries are electro-chemical gadgets whose capacity to shop and supply energy slowly depreciates over time. No depend on how nicely you maintain, shop, and use your batteries, they may nevertheless require a substitute after they have reached their cease of lifestyles.
The standard provider lifestyle of a well-known Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) battery is 3 to 5 years. However, there are some environmental, chemical, and person-associated elements that could extensively have an effect on a battery’s lifestyle. These are the number one errors to keep away from to stretch the maximum lifestyles from your UPS’s battery.
Factors that Cause Premature Battery Failure
Nothing may be completed to save you a battery from ultimately accomplishing its cease-of-provider lifestyles. However, heading off the subsequent errors can assist make sure the most lifespan.
1. Poor garage of unused batteries – Even as a battery sits unused, its lifetime starts offevolved to decrease. That’s due to the fact lead-acid batteries mechanically discharge small quantities of strength.
To lengthen a battery’s garage lifestyles, we endorse you fee it each 3 to 4 months of the garage. If you don’t, you can see an everlasting lack of ability in as low as six months. You also can lengthen your unused battery’s garage lifestyles by storing it at a temperature of 50°F (10°C) or less.
2. High ambient temperature – The rated ability of each battery is primarily based totally on an ambient temperature of 77°F (25°C). Any variation, however particularly elevated temperature, can have an effect on overall performance and lifespan. As a standard rule, for each 15°F above the endorsed ambient temperature, the predicted lifestyles of the battery are decreased by 50 percent. Routine preservation exams can assist hit upon thermal hotspots and affirm right ventilation.
3. Over-cycling – After a UPS operates on battery energy throughout an energy failure, the battery recharges for destiny use, on occasion referred to as the release cycle. When a battery is installed, it’s miles at a hundred percent of its rated ability. However, every discharge and next recharge barely reduces the ability of the battery.
4. Improper drift voltage – Every battery producer will specify the charging voltage stages for his or her very own molecular design. If a battery is continually charged out of doors of those parameters, it could motive large damage.
Undercharging or low voltage can motive sulfate crystals to shape at the battery plates. These crystals will ultimately harden and decrease the to be had the ability of the battery over time.
Overcharging with a drift voltage this is too excessive can motive immoderate hydrogen and oxygen gases and may cause inner dry out that, as soon as accelerated, can motive thermal runaway – ensuing in failure or maybe hearthplace and explosion.
5. Incorrect battery software – UPS batteries are made especially for UPSs, simply as different batteries are made especially for his or her respective appliances. UPS batteries are constructed to supply extraordinarily excessive prices of strength for a brief time, normally up to fifteen minutes.
Conversely, different batteries, along with telecom and switchgear batteries, are designed to run for longer durations of time, generally between 4 and 8 hours. If a person runs telecom software with a UPS battery, it’s going to pressure the battery to run for lots longer than its meant purpose. This may want to motive the battery’s plates to overheat and fail.
The maximum not unusual place failure mode of a VRLA Battery is an open circuit, most customarily due to molecular dry out. UPS structures generally have a SERIES linked battery machine to offer an excessive modern to the UPS System DC Bus. If one molecular in a string opens, it’s going to damage the modern withinside the whole string. In brief, simply one failed battery molecular can deliver down your whole infrastructure.
