Seven tips to help maximise the life of UPS

You and your customers need to remember safety is the top priority. This includes following APC by Schneider Electric or another manufactures recommendation for implementation and standard safety guidelines. It also includes, however not limited to using only genuine APC replacement battery cartridges. If you or your customer is still unsure about some aspects of the UPS system if is always recommended to get professional assistance.

Your customers are important to you.  Let them know how regular preventive maintenance can help avoid any major outages later on.  If these checks need to happen once a month then make sure the delegated engineer has kept a dated electronic record of each visit as well as any future planned maintenance activities as a result.

By assigning the tasks you and your customers will be able to avoid this mess “Weren’t you supposed to check that last week?” “No, I thought you were”. All the responsible employees that need to be involved must be assigned a task and also know their responsibilities when it comes to UPS maintenance.

As well as making sure you are scheduling maintenance, you and your customer need to remember to keep track of all the maintenance that is completed. The records could show the maintenance type, when it was completed, who was responsible for the completion and the condition of the equipment. You may also would like to advise your customers to keep a record of the cost to compare to how much the downtime could have been. Remember if you are keeping a record make sure it is accessible in a well-known location.

With all the schedules and roles that has been agreed with your customers, they will need to complete inspections regularly. Consult APC by Schneider Electric or another manufactures documentation for any guidelines and recommendations regarding your customer’s specific equipment.

Although UPSs have a finite life, there is the obvious probability of failure which means they can fail eventually. Your customer needs to also keep note that critical components such as batteries and capacitors will also wear out from just basic use.

Finally, if someone notices a problem during a daily or weekly inspection, your customer may find that it is not possible to wait until the next schedule maintenance. In situations like this your customer needs to be made aware of who they can call when these problems occur day or night. You and your customer needs to keep the service providers contact details in an accessible location, just as you would for any update service records.