-: In the last lesson,
we discussed the different types of power conditions
that can affect our systems.
Now, to mitigate these,
we used different forms of backup power.
The first type of backup power we have
is called a UPS or an Uninterruptible Power Supply
and this is going to combine the functionality
of a surge suppressor with a battery backup.
Now, the great thing about these
is they can also provide line conditioning.
So they can protect against things like
brown outs, sags and surges.
So if you have short durations of times
where the power goes down or goes up,
that line conditioning function
can help protect your machines
and keep them running smoothly.
Now, backups like these are good for short durations of time
but they usually don't last more than 15 or 30 minutes.
Some of the largest ones I've seen
and most expensive ones I've seen
can actually last up to about 60 minutes.
But again, this is a relatively short period of time.
So if you need to go longer than that,
we start looking at a backup generator.
A backup generator is part of an emergency power system.
It's used when there's an outage
of your regular power supply for the electric grid.
Now, some emergency power systems might include things like
lighting for your hallways or special fuel cells.
Larger commercial backup generators
can actually power the entire building
or large portions of it.
Now, it just depends on how much fuel you have available
and how much power you need to generate.
There's really three types of generators
that we're going to talk about.
There's portable gas-engine generators,
permanently installed generators,
and battery-inverter generators.
A portable gas-engine generator
is the least expensive type to run
and it usually uses gasoline or sometimes even solar power.
These tend to be noisy when they're gas engines.
They're high maintenance
and they have to be started manually
and you'll usually plug in an extension cord
and run that into your building.
So, you're not going to use this for a large server room
but you may be able to keep some specialized equipment up
and running using one of these portable systems.
Now, when you start going to larger generators,
you start talking about permanently installed generators.
These are much more expensive
and much more complex to install.
But they're always there.
Generally, these will run on natural gas,
propane or diesel fuel.
They tend to be quieter
and they can be connected directly
to your organizations electric panel.
So if you lose power to the building,
somebody can go and turn on this generator
and bring it back online.
The third type of generator that we have
is known as a battery inverter generator.
These are based on lead acid batteries.
They're supper quiet
and they require very little user interaction,
aside from maybe an uncommon restart once in a while
and changing out the batteries every couple of years.
They are well matched to environments
that require a low amount of wattage
or are the victims of short power outages only.
They can't withhold your whole facility
or data center for a long period of time.
But if you combine something like the battery generators
with the diesel commercial generators,
you can actually have the battery
take over the short period of time
and the diesels take over the long period of time.
So, how do you decide
which ones right for your organization?
Well, it's going to depend on your organizations needs,
the amount of money you want to spend on backup power,
how much downtime you can afford to have
and how quickly that power
needs to be provided to your systems.
Also, you need to consider the type of fuel source
that's available in your area.
Do you have gas or propane?
Or diesel or batteries available?
All of that is going to factor into your decision
to decide which type of generator is right for you.