• What are the most common power line problems?
• What causes power line problems?
• What is a UPS?
• Who will use the UPSs?
• What are the UPS applications?
• How can UPS supply backup power when blackout?
• What are the advantages of installing UPS to computer systems?
• How do I calculate the capacity of UPS for a given application?
• How importance is monitoring and management software? Is it necessary to work with a UPS?
• I used a LEONICS GREEN UPS. Is it possible to connect to 2 computers?
• Does the newly purchasing UPS need to be charge before use?
• If I want to recharge battery, do I have to switch on the UPS? And if I switch on and off when the UPS during charging, is there any effects of the battery?
• Does the LEONICS UPS need to be fully charged before use?
• What are things to consider when selecting a surge protector?
• What causes transient on power line? How do transient damage?
• How can I avoid the damages to electrical loads?

The most common power line problems are
Transient (or Spike) is an instantaneous increase in voltage. A transient can enter electronic equipments through power grid, network and phone line.
Surge is sudden transient increase in voltage. Longer in duration than a transient.
Sag (or Brownout) is short duration decrease in voltage of electric power line.

There are several causes of power line problems, which are classified into two primary causes as follow:

External Causes

• Direct lightning
• Distant lightning, it strikes far away but transmits large voltage transients along communication lines.
• Brownouts/Blackouts generates under voltage followed immediately.
• Utility grid switching by utility companies
• Other users on the same utility power line

Internal Causes

• High-powered electrical motors switched on and off (such as copy machines, elevators, air conditioners, coffee makers, light switches, etc.).
• Energizing and de-energizing of inductive loads (such as relays, solenoid, electrical motor loads, etc.) and power overloads, short circuits or grounding
• Power loss in transformer or utility regulator, it causes high voltage transients followed by a brownout or blackout.

UPS is an abbreviation for Uninterruptible Power Supply. A UPS is ideal equipment, which protects all connected loads from any unpredictable power failures. It regulates voltage to the acceptable range and continuously supplies to its load, filters noise. Moreover, it supplies power from the storage battery when blackout or brownout. With the UPS, your loads are protected from power problems. The UPS consists of:

• Battery Bank - backs up power to supply during a blackout or brownout. It can supply temporary backup power to its loads.
• Rectifier or Charger - takes the utility AC power and converts to DC power. Inclusively charges the batteries.
• Inverter - takes the DC power from batteries and converts to AC power for electrical loads or computer using.

Today, the function of a UPS is enhanced by modern technology such as Monitoring and management software.

First, ask yourself whether your electrical equipment and computers are very important. If, yes, see whether it is acceptable to let them interrupted or shut down. If your answer is NO, it means that you need a UPS. If you want to have one, click here to ask for quotation or place an order. We recommend you to select a quality and standard approved one.

UPSs are widely used with power sensitive system or equipments such as computer systems, data processing control sectors, banking, stock exchange, communication systems, medical equipments, industrial equipments, OA equipments, etc.

The UPS consists of battery which stores power. When it senses that input power is out of acceptable range, stored power in the battery will be drawn out and converted to AC then supplies to load. UPS will supply backup power as long as it reaches the cut off limit.

The simple answer is your computer system will be secured from power problems. You do not have to worry about data loss or malfunction when your system is interrupted from the causes that you can protect. The UPS prolongs you limited time, so that you can

• Save open files promptly
• Execute transaction and data files
• Gently shutdown the computer in an orderly manner
• Extend the computer and peripheral lifespan

Furthermore, if you use UPS and the monitoring/communication software, some of them allow you to monitor the power situation, status of UPS and manage the UPS (such as schedule shutdown and restart computer, schedule UPS self-test and log the power events, etc.). It makes your work easier. If you already have one, that is great. You have made a right choice.

For example, to calculate the UPS for a computer, find the product nameplate on the back or side of the computer. The nameplate indicates its required voltage and amperage. You must check every unit such as monitor, printer, speaker etc.
Form a computer nameplate, if the power required is 220 volts, 1.5 amps.

• Calculate VA, VA of a computer = 220 x 1.5 = 330 VA
  In case of the unit is Watt, change into VA by multiply Watt by 1.4.
• Choose the UPS that can supply enough power to the total VA of appliance. Therefore, the capacity of UPS that connecting a computer safely are larger 330 VA.

Today, many UPSs are available with Monitoring and management software which communicate with the system through the communication port. The common features are:

• Show the status of UPS and utility power on your computer
• Schedule shutdown and restart computer, shutdown and restart UPS and UPS self-test
• Log UPS power events and data

The software is available for both stand-alone and network system.

Maybe yes depending on the size of the loads. However, the GREEN, Alpha and OA extra 525 UPS are designed for 1 set of computer which consists of 1 computer, 1 inkjet/dot matrix printer and 1 modem. If 2 sets of computer connecting to the GREEN UPS, backup time will be shorter and may be not long enough to save open file and gently shutdown the computer in an orderly manner. All this depends on computer required power and battery level. For this case, we recommend you to choose the ULTRA Series 525 BG UPS which its backup time is 28 minutes for 1 set of computer and 8 minutes for 2 sets of computer.

You have to charge it for 12 hours before use.

Yes, you have to switch on the UPS to recharge the battery except LEONICS Ultra Series UPS. And there is no effect to the battery if you switch on and off the UPS during the charging period.

It is no need to charge the UPS before use because the LEONICS UPS has automatic charge function, which is known as Auto Charge System (ACS). So you just plug the UPS to the utility power line, the UPS will keep the battery to be charged all the time. Anyway, if there are frequent blackouts and the UPS has already supplied power, it may not be fully charged when you want to use. In this case, if blackout again, it may not be able to supply power as long as the previous time or cannot supply depending on the battery level.

There are important things to consider for selection a surge protector as follow:

1. Performance of a surge protector
   • Surge Current Capacity, as defined by NEMA standards, is the maximum level of current that a surge protector can withstand for a transient event. This level indicates the protection capacity of particular surge protector design, and used to select a surge protector for a given application. For example, in a high exposure application with very large voltage transients from lightning, a higher level surge current would be required.
   • Clamping Voltage is a feature referred to as peak let through. In other words, it is the amount of voltage that surge protector allows passing through it to connected load in the event of transient. This feature is a performance measurement of a surge protector's capability to mitigate a transient. Underwriters Laboratories Inc. confirms this performance value.
     
     
2. Safety
• A surge protector should be installed fuse or circuit breaker in the individual suppression circuit to clear an inoperative MOV during a transient over voltage or to protect the system from overload event.
• In case of a short duration increase in voltage, it is important to provide a path for the event to go in all modes (such as line to neutral, line to ground, line to line, neutral to ground, etc.).
• LEDs or audible alarms are available in surge protection devices.
• Surge counter is available in a surge protection device to show the status when it switches on.

Transient on power lines results from several causes such lightning strikes, lightning storms, accidental power line damage, high-powered electrical motor switching, etc.
When too much energy going through a small circuit will heat it up and get red-hot. Then some of molecules change from a solid state to gas, which is called smoke, and exit. The circuit is damaged then appliances and systems also failure. It sometimes takes time of repetitive impulses before a single, larger than average, and finally causes the failure.

If the answer of the certain ways to avoid the costly damages are not use electronic loads or do not switch them on, it is not a good idea. Nowadays, our daily lives cannot avoid the use of facility electrical loads. The best way is to protect the power supply that provides power to electrical loads and system by installing the surge protectors to assure that they will not be damaged.