Lascom can assist you in supplying you power protection products including surge protection to protect your electronic equipment against power failures, fluctuations and surges.

Although Lascom can supply various brands of Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS), we at Lascom recommend the Powerman brand of Ups’s.

The Powerman brand of UPS's has been manufactured in South Africa since 1984. Our UPS's have been designed and tested to suit the conditions that are found in South Africa.

If there is one thing that can be guaranteed, it is that no electricity supply will be stable at all times. With today's business operations having become so dependent on technology and other electronic equipment, steady power is essential. There are many different problems that can be experienced and many different types of power protection available on the market. The Powerman range of power protection equipment offers a solution to all types of power problems from surges and spikes to complete power failures.

There are various types of power protection equipment ranging from fairly simplistic surge protection plugs to state of the art on-line UPS's. Buying power protection is similar to investing in an insurance policy and before the right type of unit can be selected there must be a good understanding of the problems at hand and how the various levels of protection work.

Surge Plugs

These units are designed to protect equipment against spikes and surges. They are the cheapest form of protection and are usually purchased to provide a buffer against lightning. Combination units are available to protect both the power and telephone lines, these are usually used for modems, routers or fax machines.

Line Filters

Line filters are very much like the surge plugs but have the added advantage of being able to clean noise from the power line.

Constant Voltage Transformers (CVT)

CVT's and Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVR's) are designed to supply clean power within a certain voltage range. The units are designed to regulate voltage fluctuations of    + 15 % to within 5 %.

Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS)

UPS's can be divided into various different groups. There is a considerable difference in the way that these units work and the different types should not be confused.

1. The Off-Line UPS takes in the normal mains, drives the load and keeps the battery fully charged. The input is monitored and as soon as the mains drop below a pre-set level or fails completely the unit switches to battery inverted power. Switching time is well within the tolerance of modern computer power supplies.
2. The Line interactive UPS’s are designed to interact with the mains to supply a steady flow of power to the computer equipment. A high powered filter is incorporated into the machine to protect against spikes and surges. In addition an automatic voltage regulator is also added, this will help to increase the battery life of the UPS as it will be able to switch to battery power at a much lower input voltage.
3. The On-Line Ferro UPS is based on the Ferro resonant principal. The incoming mains connects straight into a Constant Voltage Transformer (CVT). The CVT creates an AC storage chamber, which isolates the input from the output. No matter what happens to the incoming mains the output will remain constant. Once the mains fails the input of the CVT is fed from a battery powered inverter. There is no break on the output during the transfer from mains supply to inverter supply or vice versa. The use of Ferro resonant technology reduces the component count on the machines, which will automatically increase reliability.
4. The On-Line Double Conversion UPS converts the incoming mains directly into DC. This DC power is used to charge the batteries and to drive the inverter, which in turn runs the load. Should the mains fail the batteries will simply carry on driving the inverter, and start to discharge as opposed to charging. The units have a built in Static By-Pass feature which enables the machine to transfer the load to normal mains under certain conditions. There is no break on the output on transfer to or from the mains.

Sizing of Power Protection Equipment

In order for the power protection equipment to work effectively then it must be sized according to the load it must carry. Power protection is normally sized in Volt/Amps but can be rated in watts or amps. Most types of equipment will have a power rating on the back of each unit this will be given in either Watts or amps, to convert to VA the following formulas can be used.

Volts (V) x Amps (A)        = Watts
VA x Power Factor (Pf)     = Watts     therefore     Watts / Power Factor = VA

Example:        

Mains Voltage      = 220 V
Current Drawn      = 0.5 A
220 x 0.5             = 110 Watts

To convert the above to VA which is the term used to describe the capacity of the UPS the Watt rating must be divided by the Power Factor specified for the UPS. UPS power factor ratings range between 0.6 and 0.8 therefore 0.7 would be a safe figure if you are unsure of the rating.

Example:        

Calculated Watts = 110
Power Factor       = 0.7
110 / 0.7             = 157 VA

If you are interested in finding out more about Lascom Management Systems or our Ups & Surge Protection Devices, contact us or call us on 011 234 0799 and we will gladly be of further assistance.