What's the correct way to use a Ups, so that the battery life remains optimum

JMak

JMak

Yeah.. I am at it ;)
Adept
Hi
Just recently I got involved in an assignment so I had to arrange a Ups for that, no matter what.. My earlier one was way past it's life span and I was using my pc without a Ups for last 8 months, was trying to look for a used one or one without the battery just to see if I can get but I couldn't..


So i have just purchased an APC 600 ups.
I wanted to ask you learned people the correct way to charge it..

See i use my pc for like 2 to 3 hours a day at most just for productivity purpose..

I have hooked my monitor and cpu with the ups (the idea is just the properly shutdown the pc, that's it don't need to work more than a minute or two upon a Power cut, which are rare in delhi)

Atm I keep the UPS plugged into the mains and once my pc is turned off I also turn off the ups but it remains connected to the mains and getting charged.

I have turned on the power saver mode as well on the ups..

Is this the right way to use the ups or should I also keep it disconnected from mains when I am not using the pc...

MY REQUIREMENT is that the battery should last as much as it can under normal circumstances and the ups also functions well..

Kindly advise for my use case scenario.

Thanks & Regards
 
JMak said:
I have turned on the power saver mode as well on the ups..
Click to expand...
This feature exists to limit the backup time you can use so as to prolong battery longevity. For eg, if the battery can last 20 mins after power cut, by limiting that time to 10 mins, you are causing less damage to the battery.

Phone/laptop batteries that use Lithium can be deep discharged to 0% and can still last a year or two. ~300-1000 full cycles, depending on the battery.

Even deep-cycle Lead batteries do not like to be discharged below 50%. And they definitely don't like staying discharged for too long. But unlike Lithium, they love staying charged at 100%.

You should use PC UPS only to save your work and safely shutdown your PC, or if you have a generator, you can use it for a minute or two until it kicks in. So the more backup time you use, the faster the battery dies. If you need longer backup time, you should get a home inverter w/ UPS that has big batteries and can last longer.

For max UPS life do the following:
  • wall switch to UPS always on
  • UPS switch on only when you want to use PC
  • UPS switch off once you're done
UPS should always receive mains power to keep the battery charged.

Tip: your BIOS may have an option to automatically boot when AC power is detected. If you enable it, your PC will start automatically when you turn on the UPS switch.
 
n1r0 said:
This feature exists to limit the backup time you can use so as to prolong battery longevity. For eg, if the battery can last 20 mins after power cut, by limiting that time to 10 mins, you are causing less damage to the battery.

Phone/laptop batteries that use Lithium can be deep discharged to 0% and can still last a year or two. ~300-1000 full cycles, depending on the battery.

Even deep-cycle Lead batteries do not like to be discharged below 50%. And they definitely don't like staying discharged for too long. But unlike Lithium, they love staying charged at 100%.

You should use PC UPS only to save your work and safely shutdown your PC, or if you have a generator, you can use it for a minute or two until it kicks in. So the more backup time you use, the faster the battery dies. If you need longer backup time, you should get a home inverter w/ UPS that has big batteries and can last longer.

For max UPS life do the following:
  • wall switch to UPS always on
  • UPS switch on only when you want to use PC
  • UPS switch off once you're done
UPS should always receive mains power to keep the battery charged.

Tip: your BIOS may have an option to automatically boot when AC power is detected. If you enable it, your PC will start automatically when you turn on the UPS switch.
Click to expand...
Just what the Dr ordered
Precise, informative and utterly decisive reply.
Kudos bud..
Everything noted
And the bios feature, wow i didn't know, will chk and update

Many many thanks for the clarifications.
Regards
 
As per APC engineer (who visited to service my UPS), discharge the battery fully once in a week or at least in a month to keep it healthy. So keep using your computer normally until you hear low battery warning from the UPS. Shut down the the PC after that.

Other than that, you are correct in keeping your UPS plugged in all the time.
 
lockhrt999 said:
As per APC engineer (who visited to service my UPS), discharge the battery fully once in a week or at least in a month to keep it healthy.
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Unless your UPS has NiMH or NiCd batteries, I would be forced to say the engineer was mistaken. Only Nickel batteries suffer from the "memory effect". Completely discharging a lead battery drastically reduces its longevity. There's a reason all Lead batteries come factory charged to 100%. Compare this to Lithium batteries that come <50% charged on new devices.

More detailed explanation if you're interested.
 
I dunno why engineer said that. I hardly discharge my batteries because there's almost no power cuts and my batteries still go bad in 3 years. I so I guess it doesn't even matter that much.
 
Just for info
The APC also uses the similar 7ah, 12v batteries that are there in all the other ups??
And I guess they are user replaceable as well
 
lockhrt999 said:
I dunno why engineer said that. I hardly discharge my batteries because there's almost no power cuts and my batteries still go bad in 3 years. I so I guess it doesn't even matter that much.
Click to expand...
I've only noticed this with replacement batteries. The first APC UPS i got, BR1000 made it five years. I put it down to a lower-quality battery used for replacement.

This UPS topic i went to town with some years back. See this thread
 
Stock or factory fitted UPS batteries even lasts up to 5 yrs until you replace them with after market brands (mostly Exide) and it conks within 3 yrs.
Again, getting original replacement is a bi of pain due to non-availability or even if you get one it will conk off in 3 yrs only.
 
blr_p said:
I've only noticed this with replacement batteries. The first APC UPS i got, BR1000 made it five years. I put it down to a lower-quality battery used for replacement.

This UPS topic i went to town with some years back. See this thread
Click to expand...
nRiTeCh said:
Stock or factory fitted UPS batteries even lasts up to 5 yrs until you replace them with after market brands (mostly Exide) and it conks within 3 yrs.
Again, getting original replacement is a bi of pain due to non-availability or even if you get one it will conk off in 3 yrs only.
Click to expand...
My first batch of batteries were replaced in a few months by the APC under warranty. I was given refurbished UPS and batteries. The batteries could last longer but APC likes to cook them. Bad engineering.
 
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