3 Ways Critical Power Systems Protect Your Business

Written by Nite and Day Power on .

The basic idea behind critical power systems is simple: When there’s a problem with the flow of power from your utility, the uninterruptible power supply takes over using onboard batteries. These keep equipment online until power is restored.

While that’s the process in a nutshell, critical power systems protect against much more. What many people don’t realize is this: There can be differences in electric quality as well as consistency. This depends on your utility and the wiring of your structure.

 

In addition to blackouts, critical power systems protect against these issues:

1. Voltage Surges and Spikes

Voltage surges are temporary increases in line voltage entering the building. In extreme cases, voltage spikes can cause fire. Luckily, this is rare. A far more frequent occurrence is damage to computers and other microprocessor-based machines due to surges.

A standard surge protector isn’t sufficient to protect large-scale critical equipment, but UPS-based critical power systems are. In a severe storm where the risk of surge is high, you can selectively switch to UPS power to protect your capital equipment.

2. Voltage Sags (“Brown Outs”)

Voltage sags are brief periods of low voltage in incoming power. In many cases, sags are not noticeable in the environment, but they can cause erratic behavior in machinery affected. Over time, this can diminish the service life of equipment.

When voltage sags are severe or prolonged, brownout conditions become possible.

Brownouts usually become obvious when brief interruptions in power flow cause lights to flicker. The situation only needs to worsen a little bit to take equipment offline. Even before devices lose power, you might lose internet or other functionality.

3. Other Electrical Voltage and Frequency Errors

In standard power lines and building connections in the United States, electricity transmits in the form of 120-volt AC power at 50/60 hertz. Hertz is a measure of frequency used to describe the wave form of electromagnetic transmissions.

Some equipment may need higher or lower voltages – in which case they have their own adapter to adjust it – but energy that flows into your facility needs to be at this level.

A UPS can protect equipment from the effects of high-frequency line noise that interferes with performance. Its ability to “even out” power flow is called line conditioning.

Critical power systems aren’t as simple as they look – but protecting your business with one is easy. Just contact Nite & Day Power.

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