One of the most important steps you can take to maximize the life of your UPS is engaging in regular preventative maintenance. Here are 5 reasons to consider a maintenance plan for your UPS:
Simpler planning and budgeting
Regular preventive maintenance (PM) visits to service UPS systems will provide you with a wealth of data regarding the overall health of your equipment. Aggregated in a document known as a field service report (FSR), the data will identify areas of a system which require immediate and/or future attention. Several UPS components, including batteries and UPS capacitors, often require replacement before the UPS reaches its end of life. Regular UPS PM visits and the resulting FSR will allow you to plan and budget for future component replacements with a high degree of confidence.
Minimized risk of downtime
When a facility engages in regular UPS PM’s with a reputable service provider, there will be a service level agreement which provides a certain number of PM visits on an annual basis. These visits are often a mixture of major and minor UPS inspections. A major UPS inspection offers that the UPS be taken fully offline, so that all internal components can be checked for damage and wear. If/when an internal component needs replacement, the firm maintaining the UPS can work with you to get it replaced – protecting the UPS from failure in the case of an outage and protecting the facility from downtime. Another common test to protect critical equipment from failure is the load test. The load test ensures that a UPS’s battery bank can support its critical load during an outage.
Improved efficiency
UPS’s are often considered a huge offender regarding energy loss in power distribution systems. While there are several ways to attempt to increase a UPSs efficiency, including tweaking load levels, there is one sure way to maintain its efficiency: Regular PMs.
Reduced costs
Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a measurement often used to compare the true costs of a piece of equipment or technology. In the UPS world, TCO is a very important metric. Adding preventive maintenance to a TCO strategy is a guaranteed way of reducing the cost per year of a UPS over its lifetime. By engaging in preventive maintenance, a UPSs life can be maximized, meaning you should not have to worry about paying to replace the UPS before you are ready.
Peace of mind
Having a trusted UPS maintenance partner means that all your UPS technical questions can be answered, and, if need be, a technician can visit your site in case of an emergency. This results in fewer headaches and more peace of mind. Also, regular PM visits, by design, will make maintaining your system much simpler, because a technician will be on site with you on a regular basis to answer your questions and identify any signs of potential failure.
With more than 35 years of field experience and leadership in power protection, SEPS is well qualified to perform UPS preventive maintenance. SEPS offers a full suite of UPS services and all technicians are trained and certified to manufacturer standards, assuring a thorough job. For more information, please contact us, or speak with one of our Power Protection experts at 630-283-2399 or dmayo@seps-inc.com.