Types Of Uninterruptible Power Supplies

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Friday, January 29th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

While we all know that our daily requirements depend largely on energy sources provided by a single utility power, we must also be aware of the fact that this lone supplier may get overloaded and cut off its source for sometime. It is in such a situation that we need an UPS to provide us with an uninterrupted power supply. But how can we tell which one is good for us?

As is known, uninterruptible power supplies or UPS are a back up source of energy that provide emergency power to devices that are connected to it until the main utility source is restored or the equipment safely switched off. Uninterrupted power supply can not help to save all that important data that may be lost through the loss of power but to save many lives when it’s used in places like hospitals.

But how can we tell which uninterruptible power supply is appropriate for us. There are two primary kinds of uninterruptible power supplies, the on-line and the line interactive UPS systems. The double-conversion is utilised by the on-line uninterruptible power supply. This means it takes in the AC input that is available from the main utility source and then converts it into DC power. This is necessary for it to pass through the battery. Once this is done it converts it back to AC power which runs the connected equipment.

The line interactive uninterruptible power supplies have an internal or in-line inverter that transmits the DC power of the battery from the standard charging form to supplying energy during an emergency power failure. It is analogous to the stand by or off-line UPS except for the fact that it has a flexible electrical transformer that has the ability to increase or decrease the magnetic field and the produced voltage of the transformer. It is able to withstand constant low voltage brownouts and high voltage surges without using up the stored energy.

An on-line UPS is perfect for situations where there are extreme voltage fluctuations and the equipment connected to it is highly sensitive. This type was only used in the earlier days for larger consumption installations, but they are more expensive than the line-interactive and the stand by UPS. They are available now however, in smaller consumer equipments. These use about 500 watts of power. Large industries that have vast numbers of noise-making equipment generally will use this as they are convenient to this type of environment. To supply uninterrupted power supply to these equipments it is necessary to have the backup of a generator.

They are more expensive than the other two types of UPS systems for the sole reason that they have a powerful AC to DC converter with advanced cooling systems that allow them to efficiently provide energy sources to your equipment. The on-line UPS works differently than the other UPS systems. The converter moves out of the circuit when there is a power cut and resumes charging when the main power supply is restored; this means it does not need any transmission switches.

You can decide which uninterruptible power supply system is best for you based on the two designs and functions. Whether it is for your home or office or a large organisation or industry, uninterruptible power supplies will provide you an uninterrupted power supply always.

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