AC UPS's vs DC UPS's

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In today's video we are going to discuss some devices that are commonly used in many different electrical systems. Ranging from industrial SCADA equipment, all the way down to your home computer. I am referring to UPS’s, or uninterruptible power supplies. If you have not already seen our other video in which we talk about UPS’s in great detail, I will link that video in the description below. For the purpose of today’s video, I want to talk about the two main types of UPS’s, AC UPS’s and DC UPS’s. We will discuss what makes them different and why you might use one vs. the other… and also in what scenarios it makes sense to use either one of these devices. So let’s get to it.
First and foremost, what makes these devices different from one another? As you would expect, both AC and DC UPS’s are intended to provide battery backup in the event on some kind of utility power failure. In most cases they do this very much the same way, in that... when power is lost, they both automatically sense in the loss of incoming power, and switch the outgoing power to the battery backup system until power is restored, or until the battery runs out of juice. But how are they different? As there name suggests, one unit backs up only AC circuits, and the other will back up only DC circuits? So depending on the type of hardware you are intended to backup, this will dictate what type of unit you may decided to use.
Let’s use an example of an industrial control panel to better illustrate how power is being distributed, so we might better understand how each of these UPS’s would back up this system in the event of power failure. This knowledge, will hopefully give you a better understanding of which unit might better fit your specific application. When using an AC power supply, everything that is downstream of the UPS will be on battery backup in the event of a power failure. In many cases, The AC UPS will be wired somewhere at the beginning of the power distribution circuit, to ensure that almost everything in the panel has battery backup in the event of power loss, including the DC power supply, and all DC related hardware. Anything upstream of this UPS, will not have battery backup and will not function during a power failure. Now, looking at the DC UPS the same principle will apply. Everything downstream of the DC UPS will remain energized in the event of a power failure, however, if the control panel has any AC powered devices, they will not receive any kind of battery backup in the even of a power failure. So in general, an AC power supply will protect more components within the panel.
With that said, in most cases, AC UPS’s are much larger, and can take up a great deal of space in a control panel. Also, it is common to see control panels that have almost all of the critical hardware using DC power. So, if space allows and you have various AC powered devices that need to remain running in the event of a power failure, an AC UPS would make a lot of sense. Conversely, if space is limited and there are no essential pieces of hardware requiring AC power, a DC UPS might be the better option.
There are no right or wrong answers in regards to which unit is best. It simply comes down to what your specific application requires, and what unit best fits that application. For instance, my home computer requires AC power, so it would make no sense to use a DC UPS for that application. Having this basic understanding of what the requirements are of the hardware you intend to use and how you hope to provide battery backup to each device in the even of power failure… can help in deciding which unit will work best for that application.
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