Questions You Should Know about Lead Acid UPS Power Supply

Typically in a UPS a gel-cell battery is employed - a type of SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery, but it doesn't have to be. There are numerous types of Lead Acid batteries:
- Maintenance-Free (what you might see in a car - doesn't have water caps)

- Maintenance - (what you might see in a car - has water caps)

- SLA (Sealed Lead Acid)

- Gel Cells
- AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat)
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- Deep Cycle (thick lead plates)

- Marine Cycle (not as good as deep cycle, but thicker plates than car batteries).

Car batteries are not designed for deep cycling, their lead plates are relatively thin and have holes in them to increase the surface area of the lead, this allows much higher cranking amps that cars need for starting an engine. Deep Cycle batteries have much thicker plates, and no holes this allows for longevitiy (thicker plates won't be consumed as fast), but can't deliver the instantaneous current surges typically needed for cars, all else being equal.

With most SLA type batteries, the float charge is indeed about 13.8 volts for a battery that has 6 cells (12v nominal), However, this is not true for Gel Cells. Gel Cells want 0.033 v/cell lower than cells with a mobile electrolyte (sulfuric acid). So one needs to be careful and understand what type of battery they are charging/maintaining. Also when charging gel cells, one should not exceed 1/10C or 1/20C current otherwise, bubbles could form where the sulfuric acid paste resides against the lead plates. Once a bubble is formed, there is a loss of capacity due to no interaction between the acid and the plate. This is permanent. The battery has been fried and has lost that capacity forever.

The other misconception regarding lead acid batteries is how they are rated. If a battery is rated at 100 Amp-hours. Yes it can deliver 20A for 5 hours, once. Depleting a lead acid battery to more than 50% of its rated capacity is very bad. Typically for deep cycle batteries you can do 50% as long as the battery is not left in the depleted state for very long.

So, back to the question. I ran a couple of racks of equipment in a data center for 10 years and we had a UPS inside the racks for just our equipment. The UPS has gel cells for batteries. I also have 2 UPS on my home computer systems. Once a year, I take the battery in each one down between 50%-60% capacity just to make sure that the system will work when I need it to. I have been doing this for about 10 years. The batteries are original in all of the systems and seem to be working up to their rating still. BTW, this is not question of "hurting the batteries or not", it is shortening their service life a little, BUT what is the sense of having a backup, unless you know it works. So yes I shorten the life a little bit, but I also know that the battteries will perform if/when needed.

For more info, the following link has some nice backgroundhttp://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

As with most things there is never an easy answer and more questions would need to be answered.Typically in a UPS a gel-cell battery is employed - a type of SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery, but it doesn't have to be. There are numerous types of Lead Acid batteries:- Maintenance-Free (what you might see in a car - doesn't have water caps)- Maintenance - (what you might see in a car - has water caps)- SLA (Sealed Lead Acid)- Deep Cycle (thick lead plates)- Marine Cycle (not as good as deep cycle, but thicker plates than car batteries).Car batteries are not designed for deep cycling, their lead plates are relatively thin and have holes in them to increase the surface area of the lead, this allows much higher cranking amps that cars need for starting an engine. Deep Cycle batteries have much thicker plates, and no holes this allows for longevitiy (thicker plates won't be consumed as fast), but can't deliver the instantaneous current surges typically needed for cars, all else being equal.With most SLA type batteries, the float charge is indeed about 13.8 volts for a battery that has 6 cells (12v nominal), However, this is not true for Gel Cells. Gel Cells want 0.033 v/cell lower than cells with a mobile electrolyte (sulfuric acid). So one needs to be careful and understand what type of battery they are charging/maintaining. Also when charging gel cells, one should not exceed 1/10C or 1/20C current otherwise, bubbles could form where the sulfuric acid paste resides against the lead plates. Once a bubble is formed, there is a loss of capacity due to no interaction between the acid and the plate. This is permanent. The battery has been fried and has lost that capacity forever.The other misconception regarding lead acid batteries is how they are rated. If a battery is rated at 100 Amp-hours. Yes it can deliver 20A for 5 hours, once. Depleting a lead acid battery to more than 50% of its rated capacity is very bad. Typically for deep cycle batteries you can do 50% as long as the battery is not left in the depleted state for very long.So, back to the question. I ran a couple of racks of equipment in a data center for 10 years and we had a UPS inside the racks for just our equipment. The UPS has gel cells for batteries. I also have 2 UPS on my home computer systems. Once a year, I take the battery in each one down between 50%-60% capacity just to make sure that the system will work when I need it to. I have been doing this for about 10 years. The batteries are original in all of the systems and seem to be working up to their rating still. BTW, this is not question of "hurting the batteries or not", it is shortening their service life a little, BUT what is the sense of having a backup, unless you know it works. So yes I shorten the life a little bit, but I also know that the battteries will perform if/when needed.For more info, the following link has some nice background

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For more information, please visit Lead Acid UPS Power Supply.

The batteries are nominally sealed and will not leak fluid regardless of the position. They have lead (which is a solid metal) and some battery acid, which would be more of an acute concern than the lead if it got into contact with skin (fortunately, it's typically gelled so it can't leak easily, such batteries are marked "non-spillable"). In order to breach the casing the batteries would have to be damaged or defective in some way. Personally, I've never seen it happen accidentally without physical damage. You should, of course, properly recycle them when they (or the UPS) has reached end-of-life. In my area we have no-fee hazardous waste disposal drop-off for household waste which will take paint, lead-acid batteries, fluorescent bulbs and such like.

Lithium batteries have something of a propensity to burst into flames which could emit a bunch of toxic smoke from the smouldering plastic. Personally in such an application where weight is of no concern, I'd stick with the lead-acid.

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