Should a UPS
module be load tested every year? The real question
is why do this type of testing and what are its benefits, versus the
risks of not doing this type of testing.
Whether you test an
UPS module every year really depends on a couple of different
factors. The top concern is can your facility's critical load be
taken off line or placed onto a generator backup in order to have
this type of testing performed? If
your UPS system does not have load related problems then the
test will only confirm that the module will be able to hadle full
load. Is this knowledge worth the cost of doing a load
test?
Another item to
consider is, where will the load banks be staged? What type of
heat will be generated and how will that the added heat effect your
facility? When doing large system tests there will be a large amount
of heat generated and that can effect sprinkler systems if the load
banks are staged inside of the building. Are doors going to have
load bank cables ran through them so that the doors can not be
locked or used for normal use, this may require extra security
personnel during testing? These are all questions that should be
address prior to scheduling a load test.
When customers are looking at a significant
load increase on system, they can have load bank testing performed
prior to increasing the critical load that will be applied to
the system. This is one of the best examples of when to perform load
bank testing. With this type of testing, customers can have a
higher level of confidence in the the system before the increased
critical load is applied and if there are any problems noted
then they can be corrected prior to the adding of additional
load.
In addition, on some
older systems it can make perfect sense to do a system test with
load banks inorder to re-calibrate the system and the modules. On
some of these older systems that use calibration potentiometers,
these potentiometers can drift out of calibration over the years and
by performing a recalibration it will insure that the system is
operating at peak performance. |
