The ideal plant room design scenario would be the perfect sized space to house your UPS system, batteries, switchgear, and any associated equipment. However, this is not always the reality of the situation! This is where a clever approach to room layout is required.
One key consideration is that a UPS and the associated switchgear gives off heat. The good news is that running a UPS up to 40 degrees C will not create any issues. However, an industry standard estimates that for every 10 degrees above 20 degrees C the operating life of the VRLA batteries used to support the UPS, is halved.
One simple solution is to separate the batteries from the UPS and associated switchgear by creating dividing the room with an internal wall. This means only the area housing the batteries needs environmental consideration. This could even remove the need for air conditioning altogether, resulting in huge cost savings.
In this way, some joined-up thinking when it comes to layout design and configuration can significantly reduce the cooling requirements and operational costs.
At CENTIEL our team are experts with many years of experience, trusted to advise organizations world-wide about the most appropriate UPS solutions and configurations to protect facilities and our technical sales engineers are always happy to develop a layout which works best. We work closely with clients, consultants and contractors to ensure UPS systems are all configured optimally and as a result, the critical load remains protected at all times.
Article featured in Electrical Trade July 2021