Slashdot Mirror
Looking for a Better Back-Up Power Solution?
ThisIsFred asks: "I maintain a small network (about 1500 users, 9 servers in four locations), and happen to be in an area where the power company's quality of service could be better. Reliability has been slowly improving over the past few years, but we still experience dozens of outages during the course of the year. Unfortunately, all of our un-interruptible power supplies give in after about two years of service, regardless of the brand I buy. I have stacks of lead-acid batteries waiting to get hauled away by a subcontractor licensed to dispose of hazardous materials. This is an expensive service, my employer doesn't want to allocate funds for it every two years. I don't like having to give up space for the storage of dead batteries, and I don't like wasting my time replacing them. Should my employer be responsible for the disposal fees? Shouldn't vendors selling new UPS units be legally required to take back old batteries, like with auto batteries? And what sort of solution should I be looking at that is lower maintenance? Currently I am using smaller, standalone units (1400 VA), because it is really hard for me to secure the funds for something more expensive. I'd like to see what other folks do. I trust examples based on Slashdot's real experience more than some vendor's sales pitch. I need to put together a good argument for the next budget review."
I don't know how many batteries you have, but here in Georgia, battery distributors (Voltex, Interstate, etc) are *required* to accept batteries for disposal, at no charge. In fact, at places like Sears, they charge you a core charge if you don't bring a battery in. Something like $7.
You might have to pay someone to haul them to the distributor, but that's just a labor charge.
Second, some manufacturers do take back the battery. APC includes a pre-paid UPS return for spent batteries. I don't know if it's true for every battery they sell but it is for all I've looked at.
Third, many recyclers take batteries. My city recycling center has a place to recycle lead-acid batteries for free.
Remember that deep-discharging is very hard on lead-acid. If you only need to prevent data loss then set up a quick auto shutdown on the UPS protected machines. If you need long run time consider an extended-run UPS with a large enough battery that they don't end up deep discharging. (I know, they won't spring for the $$$)
Alternately, get some sort of generator that fits your situation so the UPS is only running a short time and not deep discharging. (I know, they won't spring for the $$$)
You may want to review the OSHA and environmental laws - not to be a whistle blower but just to point out the potential risk of keeping stacks of dead lead-acid batteries around. We have to include ours on an annual report to the city.
Although you (or most likely "they") won't like the answers all you can do is document the frequency of power failure, the resulting annual costs, backup options and associated costs and any relevant regulations of which you are aware. (I just found out we had to add a backup battery to our PBX due to an employment regulation requiring access to 911 even in a power outage.)
They may not decide (their job based on your input combined with other knowledge) to give you what you want but you will have done your job.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
I filled my truck bed, drove 30 miles, and got $40.00.. (paid for my gas and lunch and a bit more to boot)
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
1: Have you looked into refurbishing the batteries? Type "Battery Desulphation" into Google, and you migh find some ways to re-use the batteries you got.
2: Hazardous waste disposal fees? Bullshit. Batteries are chock full of recyclable lead, and should NEVER be "disposed of" except to make new batteries. Look up "recycling, batteries" in your local yellow pages, and I think you may have some luck. Definitely think local on this - shipping any distance will kill you.
3: Having dismissed the whole "hazardous waste" thing above, I will now state that batteries are indeed hazardous. Or at least not something you want just sitting around. Your boss is being foolish if he thinks that by "not budgeting" for disposal, that makes the issue go away. Batteries can leak acid and give off explosive hydrogen. If something bad happens, your Boss will like paying the cost of that problem even less than your current problem.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Trolling/deep cycle batteries are available retail for rather reasonable sums. Some of them are sealed, but some are not; a non-sealed battery allows you to check it for water level and state of charge (via the specific gravity of the electrolyte). Plus, they usually offer several times the AH rating of the little gray things (good if outages may be extended). The UPS will feed quite nicely from most any 12-volt DC source.
If you decide to hook up something like this, you'll have three issues:
It's up for you to research and present to your boss for a decision. I have a little UPS which had dead batteries and the honkin' hunka lead that I hooked up in their place carried me nicely through last August's blackout, but your results may differ.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Find a secluded field in the middle of nowhere, and bring a shovel... maybe a few friends.
:)
Either way, if anyone catches you claim you were digging up bodies for some sort of ritual, you'll do less time that way.
Success is as dangerous as failure, hope as hollow as fear.
The reason you are having these troubles is not only is your boss uninformed, but, apparently, so are you. Let me give you some information which will help you understand the problems you are having.
Lead acid batteries, as a general rule, only provide 50% of their capacity before destroying themselves trying to meet your needs. UPS's are emergency power sources ONLY. If you are using them to power stuff through power outages lasting more than a minute or two more than once or twice a year, then you are not using them correctly. If you use them until you drain the battery past 50% then the batteries are going to DIE horrible creeping death.
Furthermore, if you overburden a UPS and it doesn't shut down because you're pulling too much amperage you may end up boiling the battery, which does not only reduce its life significantly, but "Vents With Flame" (to put it mildly).
In your situation, UPSs can ONLY be used to keep the power on long enough to power off the servers/workstations (ie, less than a minute, maybe two) or until an external generator kicks in.
Again let me reiterate.
UPSs are NOT "Powers out. Hope it comes on before the UPS runs out."
UPSs are instead "OH @#$%! THE POWER'S GONE! [SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN | START THE GENERATOR]!!!"
Therefore if your boss does not understand the necessity of a generator, then you must convince him to purchase UPSs that are rated to last at least twice as long as you could possibly leave the computers on after the power goes out. Ideally you'll also get UPSs which are rated at twice the current you might be pulling so you don't heat up the battery while you are shutting down (a power hungry operation for most servers: shutting down)
Lastly, concerning waste. Most battery centers accept and recycle old lead acid batteries for free. Check out batteriesplus.com for locations near you of a company I use and trust. Buy your replacements from them and they'll gladly recycle your old ones. Even if you don't purchase from them they generally accept them anyway.
Do a cost/performance analysis on a generator. Tell them that batteries last twice as long (or longer) if you use them properly and get a generator. Show them that it's probably cheaper to get appropiately sized UPS unit(s) and a generator than it is to buy a bunch of small UPSs and no generator. Also demonstrate how it will benefit your customers, and how this should be sold to them.
So. Accept this wisdom, and go forth and spread the word. Good luck.
-Adam
We are going to install a backup generator that runs off of natural gas. Here's a link to one...
We are of course going with a different company and generator, but it gives you an idea of price and features. $3500 might be too much for your situation. Keep in mind that you will still want to keep your UPSs in place (for the ~1-3 minutes that these things take to get up to speed)...
But, if you must have power to all of your systems, all of the time, a natural gas generator is probably the way to go. Before you do any of this, you will want to check out how much power you are actually using and how big of a generator you will need...the one linked to should be enough for the 9 servers you need as well as room to upgrade...
As you can tell, most of the natural gas generators also take propane, which is still good if you don't get natural gas service, or as a backup for the natural gas...