Ditch the heavy, high-maintenance VRLA batteries in your UPS for long-lasting, space-saving Lithium-Ion. They recharge quickly, require less care, and keep your power running smoothly.
Key Takeaways:
- Lithium-Ion batteries offer superior reliability and require less maintenance compared to VRLA batteries.
- They boast a longer lifespan, lighter weight, and compact size, making them ideal for UPS applications.
- Lithium-Ion batteries can be recharged significantly faster than VRLA batteries, ensuring quicker system recovery during outages.
Q: What are the advantages of Lithium-Ion batteries for UPS systems?
A: Lithium-Ion batteries provide enhanced reliability, reduced maintenance needs, extended lifespan, lighter weight, smaller footprint, and faster recharge times compared to traditional VRLA batteries.
VRLA (valve regulated lead–acid) batteries failing has proved to be the most likely cause of data center outages and UPS system failures. These outages can be damaging to businesses and costly throughout both the outage itself, as well as the recovery period that follows. Fortunately a solution has been found – Lithium Ion batteries!
Over the past five years, manufacturers have worked on a solution that are specifically designed for UPS applications, and offer a more reliable performance, require less maintenance, and have a higher power density. Vertiv’s Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) provide adequate power during short-term interruptions, surges and blackouts to safeguard your data, software, hardware and other equipment, whilst maintaining business continuity. To sweeten the deal even further, Vertiv are also offering a 5 year warranty period with selected UPS models!
Advantages of Lithium-Ion Batteries
Protects against:
Improved Reliability and Availability
• The manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries that are qualified for UPS applications utilize improved battery design, quality materials, and superior manufacturing methods. With a longer lifespan and reduced maintenance requirements, the failure of lithium-ion batteries in mission-critical environments is extremely rare.
• Also, all lithium-ion batteries include a built-in battery management system (BMS), which provides fault monitoring, cell balancing, and power optimization capabilities for each individual battery. The BMS helps to maximize battery life and minimize downtime.
Longer Lifespan
• Lithium-ion batteries typically have a design life of 8-10 years, which means they should have the same lifespan as a singlephase UPS. When a VRLA battery is at 80% capacity, or EOL, the lithium-ion battery is still at 93% capacity.
• This eliminates the pain of replacement, since lithium-ion batteries don’t have to be replaced every 3-5 years, which means a huge cost savings. Also, lithium-ion batteries can be fully charged and stored for greater lengths of time than VRLA batteries, with minimal impact on the battery’s lifespan.
Lower Weight
• Lithium-ion batteries weigh about 45% less than lead acid batteries. This makes the batteries easier to transport and install in remote facilities.
Smaller Footprint
• Lithium-ion batteries can be up to 70% more compact than lead acid batteries. This provides a space savings in any on-site or remote facility, allowing you to reconfigure your deployment to increase available rack space for IT servers and networking equipment.
Higher Energy Density and Power Density
• Lithium-ion batteries have a higher energy density (Wh/kg, or watt hours per kilogram) and power density (W/kg, or watts per kilogram). They offer the same amount of energy as lead acid batteries, but with a smaller size and lower weight.
Accommodate Higher Temperatures
• Lithium-ion batteries for UPS applications are designed to operate at higher temperatures than lead acid batteries, and warmer temperatures will have less impact as a result. You can operate most lithium-ion batteries at temperatures of 86°F (30°C) – which is almost 10 degrees higher than lead acid batteries – without degradation or reducing calendar life. This allows you to increase room temperatures in data centers or remote server rooms, which lowers cooling costs by reducing energy used for cooling.
Faster Recharge
• Lithium-ion batteries can typically be recharged to 90% capacity in under 2 hours for rack-based systems, whereas VRLA batteries may take up to 6 hours to reach the same level, and up to 24 hours to fully recharge. If the data
center has several outages in short succession, the lithium-ion battery can recharge fast enough to provide ride-through time for each outage.
Reduced costs
Whilst a Lithium Ion batteries have an initial higher cost, you will already see a return on investment within five years with a saving of 41% within ten years. Unlike lead acid batteries, Lithium Ion batteries don’t need to be replaced every 3-5 years, saving money on the cost of replacements and the labour expenses involved.
Used for UPS Applications
Whilst it is clear that Lithium-Ion batteries have a wide range of benefits and uses, they have proved highly effective to work alongside Uniterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). Vertiv’s GTX5 range utilises the benefits of Lithium Ion batteries to improve performance, flexibility of use, and reduced TCO.
NOW WITH 5 YEAR WARRANTY!
GXT5 Series
Liebert™ GXT5 UPS is an online double conversion UPS solution which offers premium power outage protection and continuous power conditioning in a compact and flexible deployment system. It protects critical equipment from all power disturbances due to blackouts, brownouts, saps, surges or noise interference.
Benefits:
- Designed for high availability
- User friendly operation and installation
- Longer life time and run-time of the batteries
- Optimized energy and capacity management
- Seamless connectivity
Features:
- Capability for parallel/redundant operation (10kVA)
- Integrated batteries and easy to install, configure and operate
- New RDU101 SNMP/webcard with advanced features
- Compatibility with environmental sensors
- Integrated dry-contacts and configurable definition
- DCIM compatible: Power Insight, Vertiv Intelligence
- Energy Star® 2.0 certified
- Programmable output sockets for optimum battery usage
This is just a brief look at the Vertiv GTX5 range Range, if you require more Vertiv products, you can check our Vertiv Range for a wide range of Vertiv products to suit your needs.
More Vertiv Products Available from Comms Express:
Vertiv Data Centre UPS | Vertiv Rack Cooling | Vertiv PDUs | Vertiv Server Cabinets | Vertiv KVM & Console Drawer Solutions | Vertiv Server Cabinets
If you require any further information on these or any other products that we stock here at Comms Express, please do not hesitate to contact our team who will be only too happy to help.
Until next time…
