How long do UPS batteries last? As partners, that’s one of the questions we get the most – especially when they call us once that infamous “BEEP” warning of low battery starts up. Conventional wisdom and the most common answer to that question is every 3-5 years – but when you think about it, that’s a big range. Is it three years or five? Should we split the difference and say four? It depends. There are five major factors that affect UPS battery life – placement, ambient temperature, cycling, maintenance, battery chemistry, and battery storage. It’s important to learn about your customer’s environment and their habits with maintaining and changing batteries. You can read more about battery lifecycle in White Paper 210, Single Phase UPS Management, Maintenance and Lifecycle.

Our customers count on us to make recommendations they can trust and the last thing any of us want is to have a customer learn the hard way that they waited too long to replace a battery – like when there is that frustrating “BEEP” going every few seconds in the background. Think in terms of a typical small or medium sized business with single phase UPSs installed throughout their organization. When considering multiple UPSs, from a budget perspective, every 3-5 years is a huge range and has a big impact on their operating budget. Do they want the expense of playing it safe and changing batteries every 3 years? Some do. Others prefer to gamble a little bit. And some try to maintain an inventory of spares – which comes with its own set of challenges such as keeping them on charge or possibly wasting them if they are in storage past their recommended shelf life.

Maybe a crystal ball will help?

One of the most exciting new features of the new Smart-UPS On-Line SRT models is the Intelligent Battery Management. This advanced feature provides real-time recommendations for changing batteries and helps identify which one needs replacement. This isn’t just a calendar that counts 36 months from the date a new battery was installed, the Intelligent Battery Management gives your customers temperature compensated charging that extends the life of the batteries and includes advanced algorithms that recommend a replacement date based on the environment and the cycling of the battery. The UPS can inform the user which batteries need to be replaced and auto detect when additional battery packs are added. The algorithms are dynamic, constantly updating the replacement date based on real factors and providing notice months or years in advance. That’s pretty close to a crystal ball.

With the new graphical multicolor LCD display, your customers with Smart-UPS On-Line can now know precisely when they need to change their batteries and they will know well enough in advance to have a new one on hand at just the right time. No more guessing, no more risk of an unexpected failure, and no more waste. Those are some huge benefits.

Intelligent Battery Management is only one of the exciting new features in the Smart-UPS On-Line SRT models. Review the other new features of the Smart-UPS online and watch videos, download brochures, and review selling tools on your partner page.