UPS backup power

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by untamed

I was hoping someone with some electrical background and experience with UPS's could confirm that this is an appropriate unit for our uses. I've heard some about the different types of power delivered being hard on pumps. If you look at the apcc website, they make many, many models...most of which were designed to power computers, not pumps.

Hmm, I do know a little bit about UPS systems and that sounds a little strange to me. There are 4 basic parts in a regular UPS, a battery, a charger for the battery, a relay and inverter that modifies the DC power from the battery back to 120v. When the power is interrupted to the system the relay trips and power is drawn from the battery via the inverter. Basically the power provided by the UPS is the same as it is coming out of the wall. You can build one of these with a car battery for under $100.

A continuous UPS is a better unit and if I'm not mistaken these units are continuous. In this case the power coming into the unit is run though a transformer and to the batteries then through the inverter and to whatever you are running off the UPS. There are 2 advantages to this, there is no millisecond drop when the unit switches to battery in the case of an interruption and because the batteries need very "clean" power the transformer must provide an almost perfect wave and constant voltage. You won't get any of the little dips and spikes out of a good UPS that you get from mains power, I can't see that being bad for a pump.

Unless there is something I don't understand about pump motors I don't see where any damage could result.