Sunsynk Lifelynk as UPS for network infrastructure
Today I had a total failure of a customers UPS. It was an eight year old Eaton unit so I went to order a replacement. A suitable unit would be an APS 3kva rack mount system at a cost of around £2000 excluding tax. Looking at this unit further it is basically a 3kw inverter with an built in lead acid battery pack which they do not disclose the size of but, from the 11.5 mins running at 1.5kva I reckon is maybe 400w. The battery needs replacing every two or three years at a cost of £800
Out of interest APC offer a lithium version which is the same but twice the cost!
The average load for the system is about 500w so I am again guessing maybe 30 - 35 mins running. Clearly this is complete rubbish at this price point for a UPS, but is the general industry price for it. Obviously my thoughts went to a SunSynk unit and the LifeLynk would be perfect. As far as I can see would fit on the wall, run the infrastructure from the load port, make sure the cabinet is only connected the the load earth, not the grid, fit a 20ma RCD and isolator and its all good to go. Probably seven or eight hours running so like 15 times better and the batteries would last indefinitely.
At the moment there is a single feed to the old UPC which is to a 'commando' socket. This should have an RCD on it but I bet it doesn't! So supply to MCB - RCD - GRID-CONNECTION then LOAD-CONNECTION-MCB-RCD-Server-Cabinet.
The only issue I then have is that the UPS has a system to notify the windows servers that the grid is off and also when the battery is below a set level. Windows then uses this information to shut down.
Can anyone see a problem with my thoughts on this and any ideas how to achieve the shutdown. I would have thought there was a massive market for this type of installation given the enormous price difference.
David
Ahhhh, but that's Linux :-) You try keeping a windows server up for more than a couple of months! :-) I think I have Windows servers with 1636 hours though, does that count?