Protection against power outages

We recently invested in an Ellies 5kva diesel generator with an auto transfer switch for our server room - for R12K for the generator plus another R2k for the electrician to wire it in we now have a solution that we are very happy with and which is working excellently. Each server has a small 1kva UPS on it which keeps them running while the generator kicks in (which it does in as little as 15 seconds). The generator powers on automatically when the power goes off and manages to keep seven big server boxes as well as all our networking hubs/routers running almost indefinitely during a power failure. When the mains power returns the generator simply powers off automatically - so far it's worked very well during two separate hour long load shedding episodes. In the past we would have had to shut down all the servers after about 15 mins and lost data for the period they were off - as we log remote monitoring data for clients that is usually a bit of a disaster for us.

The only glitch we had was that we were using Meissner line interactive UPS's which were too sensitive for the generator and which would not accept the generator power input so we had to switch to older UPS's which are not as fussy about the AC power coming in.

We had been under the impression that a solution like this would cost R40k plus so we were very happy to get this up and running for ony R14k all in.

We've also learned that nothing beats a laptop during a power failure and we are now only buying laptops for our staff in the office - they consume less power than a desktop and when the power goes off everyone can generally carry on working for one or two hours and can even recharge off the generator circuit as necessary. The added benefit is that trusted staff members can take their work home with them as it is now portable!

was thinking about a solar solution and some battery racks, till i saw the costs! R10 000 just for the panels ups also about R5000, this is all to rich for a home system.a Generator seems like the answer, am after a enviro friendly system.

Which UPS?

Hi garp

Thanks for the valuable info, can I ask which “older” UPS systems you are utilising in conjunction with the FB5G-LDER?

Many thanks

Michael