Author: Westech | Date Published: 17 August 2009 14h30 | Article Release

With the power crisis in the country, unexpected power cuts and Eskom employees threatening a strike it seems we should all be prepared for worse outages. This could be detrimental for businesses that are not prepared, as we saw last year blackouts temporarily crippled mining output.

To make sure that at least computers, data centers and telecommunications equipment will not be negatively affected by these outages, it is a wise decision for every business to implement an uninterrupted power supply, also known as a battery backup, on all sensitive equipment. This provides emergency power from a separate source when utility power is not available unlike an emergency power system or generator which does not provide instant protection from a power interruption. An uninterrupted power supply can provide backup power for almost any amount of time depending on the size and capacity of the batteries, businesses commonly use an uninterrupted power supply that lasts 5-15 minutes until an auxiliary power supply can be turned on, utility power stored or equipment safely shut down.

There are two types of uninterruptible power supplies, online and offline. An online one gives you a constant amount of output all the time from the battery whether there are spikes or drops in current from the main power supply, thus all current is filtered through the UPS and there is a constant backing from the battery, also protecting equipment from power surges.

An offline one supplies Mains directly to the output rather than filtering the current when power supply is regular and charges batteries at the same time. When power fails it switches those batteries to produce output for power backup. An offline uninterrupted power supply is less expensive than an online one but an online one is more beneficial. An online uninterrupted power supply protects from things like power surges and dips because it supplies a constant power output no matter what the fluctuation of the input is, an online uninterrupted power supply is thus the most ideal for environments where equipment is very sensitive to power fluctuations. Though more expensive an online uninterrupted power supply has the main advantage of its ability to provide an electrical firewall between the incoming utility power and sensitive electronic equipment.

For more information and advice on what the best option for your business is, give Westech a call and make an appointment with our skilled technicians for the best IT solutions to ensure business continuity, even in the dark.

For an appointment e-mail sales@westech.co.za.