PC Peripherals APC ES500 Battery replacement suggestion

[vpraveenis]

My APC UPS has been acting up lately and there is litreally no backup from it. The model is APC ES 500 (BE500Y-IN). I am looking to replace the battery with a Exide powersafe as I see it getting recommended here in the forums. I have a few queries

1. What rating of battery should I get? The Pic of the existing battery is attached.

2. If I get a higher rating battery (the one that comes with 600VA models), will my UPS behave as if it is a 600VA model?? (I mean is battery the only thing that distinguishes these UPS ratings??)

I am planning to go to battery dealers and check out, but I am not sure about the ratings and which Exide model to go for. Please advise.

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[vpraveenis]

Went around shops today looking to get a Exide Powersafe.. Many didnt have it. One shop said they will have it in stock and will call me tomorrow and quoted Rs750 for a 7VA battery (and offered extra Rs50 discount). So the final price was Rs700

Since I was bored, I went around more and went to one shop who quoted 1200 for the same :S:S I dont know what in the world he was thinking.

After some more looking around, found an electronic shop who had UPS batteries. That guy said he will provide a Wipro battery with 1Yr warranty and that he will give an immediate replacement at the shop itself within the period. He said exide batteries RMA required it to be sent to a main office and might take around a week min (Many other shops said the same thing about exide and a few even said they stopped selling exide UPS batteries due to all the hassles)

Anyways, the Wipro one was offered for Rs650 (and further minus 40 for the old one) so it came to Rs610. Felt it was a good deal and got it and fitted it now... Things are running fine. Letting it on charge now.. Let me see how much backup this is able to provide

 

[Arjun]

Wipro could be better than exide, I had a HCL ups which had a wipro battery which lasted 5 years, the exide batteries that i have used usually last about 8-12 months.

 

[kishore.chander]

well it depends on how you use the batteries. Do not discharge the batteries more than 50% of its capacity. Do a regular discharge at least once a week for about 20% of its capacity for a prolonged battery life

 

[vpraveenis]

well it depends on how you use the batteries. Do not discharge the batteries more than 50% of its capacity

That's fine. I will shut down the system at the earliest when power fails.

Do a regular discharge at least once a week for about 20% of its capacity for a prolonged battery life

Now how do I know when it's 20% of it's capacity?? I dont want to do a full discharge to just find out the backup time. Maybe running it on backup for a minute every two weeks should be fine??

 

[kishore.chander]

lets assume your systems consumes 120 watts of power. Effectively thats 0.5 amps from a 220 volt supply.

Now when it runs on a battery, the ups has to convert the 12 volt to 220 volt. To supply 120 watts, the ups will absorb 10 amps to provide an output of 120 watts if your UPS is 100% efficient in converting the power. (12 volt * 10 Amps = 120 watts).

Given the fact, the battery is just 7 amps, it cannot provide 10 amps and thats why you get a back up time of about 20 mins max on a single 7 amps battery.

As you said you can run the UPS on back up mode for about 3 to 5 mins max atleast once a week or twice a month to prolong the battery life. Otherwise your lead plates will become too thick with sulphate formation leading it to be too much resistive in providing the necessary output volts.