UPS Battery Testing Benefits
For a consistent performance and uptime, periodic and regular battery testing of your UPS systems is a must. By consistently checking your batteries you can find faults quickly, prevent business loses and prevent any battery backup issues from developing. With testing you can be rest assured about your battery’s performance in an emergency situation. Let’s discuss UPS battery testing in a bit more detail.
Why is this beneficial?
One of the services we offer is full UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) system battery conductance testing. This is of huge benefit to the customer as it allows them to see the health of each individual UPS battery.
This gives them the reassurance that their load is protected in the event of a mains failure. One of the perks of testing in conductance is the ability to predict the remaining life of the UPS batteries more accurately and predict how much longer they can support the load under a mains failure situation.
The ability to predict how much longer the UPS batteries can remain in service allows the customer to replace the batteries before a failure occurs and allows them to budget for their UPS batteries to be replaced.
What is a conductance test?
BCL Power test UPS batteries in conductance using the Franklin Conductance Tester. The Franklin Conductance Tester is an industry leading tester which can determine the health of a stationary battery by measuring how well the flow of current is travelling through the battery. This test can be carried out on-line and the UPS system can remain on-line meaning the load is still supported whilst the battery testing is carried out.
Franklin Conductance Tester
What does a battery test visit entail?
We asked one of our engineers…
I’ll set off bright and early, coffee in hand, to arrive on site for the prearranged ETA. On arrival I sign in at reception or security lodge as per the site requirements. They will let my site contact know I’ve arrived for them to meet me. Upon meeting the customer, maybe a quick coffee and probably an obligatory moan about the traffic I incurred on the way there, we head to the system location.
On arriving in front of the system I complete a quick visual point of work assessment to make sure there is nothing that needs to be added to our RAMS. Once this is done I PPE up and get stuck into some UPS battery testing! (Don’t think many people will share the excitement I have about a few batteries).
A visual inspection is completed. I’m looking for any swelling, cracks or worse case exposed sulphuric acid. These are tell-tale signs of deteriorating end of life batteries. I then scan over the UPS batteries with my temperature gun. Another tell-tale sign of a failing battery is heat.
This can also be useful in identifying an individual failed battery before conductance testing has even been completed. Then the grand finale, the Franklin Celltron Advantage battery tester! I set up the test in the tester (No. of batteries, voltage, reference value) and click ‘start test’.
We’re underway! I then test each battery by attaching the positive and negative probes to the corresponding poles. This gives me a siemens value which I can use to determine the battery health with based on the industry standard test thresholds.
Once I have completed the testing the readings can be reviewed, any failed UPS batteries can be marked up and advisories can be noted down on my report.
UPS battery maintenance is often forgotten, we often see batteries which are end of life and need replacing to regain integrity to the load. Once I debrief the site contact on my findings, I pack up my tools and file my report on our company server to be sent to the customer.
I then sign out of site and head back to my van for a well-deserved sit down. As soon as I’m back behind the wheel I’m ready to enter a new postcode into Apple maps on my search for some more UPS batteries to get stuck into.
To find out more about our UPS battery testing services please get in touch.