Sweating the asset

Sweating the asset

By Jack Ward, MD of Powermode

Trying to make your older technology last longer could be costing you money.

Big money. Take uninterruptible power supply systems (UPSs) for example.  As they get older and become in need of that inevitable battery change, the temptation is to keep their aging, less-efficient technology running. 

This is a big mistake. Why? Because with the big strides taken in component design and technology recently, new high-frequency UPSs operate at much higher efficiency levels and therefore use less power. A lot less.  

The cost of running an older, less-efficient UPS compared to a newer, more efficient option can be as high as R60 per kVA per month.

So, by deploying newer technology, an average-size, 10kVA UPS could save you up to R600 per month in running costs. You’ll also benefit from lower maintenance charges and much greater reliability. This is because efficiencies of up to 97 to 98% can be achieved by running modern UPSs in an intelligent or predictive ‘eco mode’. 

It works like this: The UPS continually senses the condition of the incoming power and if stable, it will switch off its energy-hungry inverter and run in an efficient ‘line interactive’ mode.  Should the power fail, the unit will return to the ‘inverter mode’ in less than 15 milliseconds - far faster than most conventional devices take to even sense a power outage.  

And if the power becomes erratic or unstable - for whatever reason - the UPS will switch the inverter back automatically into full ‘double online conversion’ mode, which provides for a high degree of power stability to the load.

The ‘eco mode’ function is ideal for most IT devices which utilise switch-mode power supplies. These power supplies are designed to accept a fairly wide range of input voltages. 

So it makes sense to consider refreshing your UPS.  Sweating the asset could be costing you a pretty penny. 

Consider a medium size departmental server room or call centre running a 100kVA UPS.   The saving on electricity costs could be up to R6 000 per month or a whopping R72 000 per year. And you’ll be saving the planet too!

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