Keeping UPS Up and Running
Part 1: UPS: Preventive Maintenance Ensures Power Supply
Part 2: UPS Testing: Identify Potential Power Interruptions
Part 3: UPS Maintenance Checklist
Part 4: Top Tools for UPS Maintenance
Part 5: Adhere to NFPA Requirements During UPS Testing
UPS Maintenance Checklist
By Michael Newbury - August 2008
Regular equipment testing should be part of a facility’s UPS maintenance schedule. Such a schedule might include the following elements:
Quarterly:
• Visually inspect equipment for loose connections, burned insulation or any other signs of wear.
Semiannually:
• Visually check for liquid contamination from batteries and capacitors.
• Clean and vacuum UPS equipment enclosures.
• Check HVAC equipment and performance related to temperature and humidity.
Annually:
• Conduct thermal scans on electrical connections to ensure all are tight and not generating heat, which is the first and sometimes only indication of a problem. A non-evasive diagnostic tool helps technicians identify hot spots invisible to the human eye. Technicians should retorque if thermal scan provides evidence of a loose connection.
• Provide a complete operational test of the system, including a monitored battery-rundown test to determine if any battery strings or cells are near the end of their useful lives.
Biannually:
• Test UPS transfer switches, circuit breakers and maintenance bypasses.
If a generator is part of the building’s emergency-power system and feeds the UPS, it also will need to be tested monthly or quarterly. Most facilities have a generator-maintenance schedule in place in which testing frequency is defined.
A UPS typically is sized to carry the load for a short period of time. Longer outages require backup-power generation to maintain critical services. Each facility is unique, and managers need to develop a maintenance schedule to suit each site’s specific needs.
Comments
SKuchle wrote re: UPS Maintenance Checklist
on 1/31/2012 9:26:48 AM
Great write up, very valuable information.
Might I also recommend checking the air filters and changing if necessarily, it would greatly help with air into the system, and in turn help with keeping it cool. It's something that only takes a minute but make a big difference.
Also if you need a UPS Maintenance Provider Jantech Services works all on all major manufactures.
http://www.jantechups.com/services/ups-maintenance-agreements.aspx
scassidy7 wrote re: UPS Maintenance Checklist
on 8/25/2009 1:05:35 PM
Mike if I could add one piece of equipment to your list, if I wasn't going to do remote individual internal battery resistance testing, then I would add a good conductance meter, like the Midtronics Ultrameter. And there is a condition known as "Thermal Runaway" where we have seen perfectly good batteries die in less then a month becasue of overcharging. Our BMS has a constant monitored temperature of each battery.
And for the generator exercising, we make another product we call a ContactAgent that monitors contact closures. It addition to the possible 32 Digitsl/Analog inputs, it has two Form C relay outputs allowing the user to start and stop the generators remotely.
Check out our webssite, www.phoenixbroadband.com
