What is an Industrial Battery?
Industrial batteries are designed to be rugged and last for a very long time. They can survive long term deployments as well as periods of inaction, so industrial batteries tend to be used as energy storage (for solar, for example) or as an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) for a back-up power source connected to computer server, hard drive and data systems in case of a power outage, which is an extremely important aspect of any financial institution.
Why do Industrial Batteries require testing?
Due to the jobs that these crucial devices tend to perform, reliability and performance are the two utmost important factors of any UPS system. Identifying potential power problems is important because power failure means device failure.
What Are the Different Types of Battery Testing?
JPAC Batteries offers several types of battery testing for financial institutions, to ensure the optimum performance of your system:
- Impedance Testing
Performed once a year, this test is done without taking a battery offline, by pushing AC current through the battery terminals to measure how much resistance the battery gives to the current – the higher the impedance, the older the battery. This in turn identifies cell deterioration or cells that need replacing.
- Load Bank/ Discharge Testing
This test shows how much capacity is available in a battery under resting and high usage conditions. Discharge testing can identify available capacity in individual cells of a battery, can prepare a battery for storage and check battery performance under a load, so it is very accurate and useful. Discharge testing should also be performed annually, but requires that the batteries are taken offline for around 24 hrs or so.
- Electro-Chemical Testing
Testing chemical factors of a battery such as sulphation and electrolyte dissipation, this battery test can be done whilst batteries are in situ, measuring the frequency response to applied voltage, offering a detailed overview of a battery’s condition. Sulphation can be minimised by recharging at a higher rate, or blocks of cells can be replaced.
- Partial Discharge Testing
Batteries can be discharged by around 75% instead of a being fully discharged, which allows the batteries to be brought aback online in a faster period of time and allows 25% of the battery to be used if required – a great option for businesses that must have a back-up available at any given time, such as hospitals, or any business with vital server and data access requirements.
Battery Maintenance
Battery maintenance and testing are crucial to the continued performance of an industrial battery or UPS system and battery lifespan can be heavily reduced without them.
Most UPS systems have a very basic built-in function that performs basic daily testing because of how important these devices are to a business, but the self-testing that some UPS systems perform can be too simple to spot a potential problem.
External testing resolves this problem because each individual part of the battery can be assessed as part of a regular maintenance program.
Contact JPAC Batteries
Overall, battery testing is hugely important to determine the productivity of a cell or UPS system and should be performed at least every year, in addition to the basic auto test on UPS systems. Contact JPAC Batteries at jpacbatteries.com.au or call us on 0422 629 870 to arrange for your industrial batteries or UPS systems to be checked.
