A UPS system is designed to backup sensitive equipment like servers, computers, medical equipment, telecommunications equipment, etc. Standard UPS systems have small internal battery sets and can only provide short backup times of approximately 5 – 10 minutes which cannot be extended as the internal battery chargers are small and can only cater for the internal battery sets they were designed for. Additional or external batteries cannot be connected to these UPS systems.
There are also long backup UPS systems available which can be supplied with external battery sets to provide backup for, usually not more than 2 hours. If the user requires longer backup than 2 hours, the system would then have to be intentionally oversized to cater for the longer backup time, which can then be extended to 4 – 6 hours. For longer backup times, UPS systems should be installed in conjunction with a generator.
The double conversion online UPS systems have no break whatsoever and the sensitive equipment will always run on electronically produced power and is not directly connected to the mains power.
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In contrast, inverter based long backup systems do have a small break when they switch over to backup power (irrespective of the inverter system brand or model). The higher quality systems, which Toptronic supplies, switch over in a very short time and it is hardly noticeable. Inverter backup systems incorporate larger battery chargers which allows larger battery sets to be installed which results in much longer backup times than UPS systems.
In contrast, home long backup systems, which do have a small break when they switch over to backup power (irrespective if the inverter system, but the good quality systems have a power break during switchover which is hardly noticeable), incorporate large battery chargers which enables extra large battery sets to be installed, which results in extra long back-up times.This is not possible with UPS systems.