Answering questions with questions --
What would you like to protect against: Brownouts, surges/spikes (or other 'dirtiness'), momentary power drops, or sustained power loss, or a combination?
What would you be protecting: The instruments themselves, or experiments/analysis in progress during a power loss in addition to the instruments?
I have UPS systems for my confocals, set up to smooth over brownouts and momentary power drops, i.e. relatively short battery runtimes. I'm protecting the instruments, and not user specimens (e.g., stagetop incubators are not on UPS). The backup system cannot contend with sustained power outages, in which case the UPS batteries will drain and then all downstream instruments will lose power. For my instruments, an abrupt but clean power loss is preferable to a transient; none of my instruments are connected to our backup generator. If an extended power outage is expected (hurricane, blizzard), I will preemptively power down the instruments.
For sizing the UPS, consider how the load (your MS) is normally powered. Is it running on 120VAC, or a higher voltage? Does it require multiple circuits? Do you have a measurement of how many amps it draws under normal use, or what its max amp draw could be? This will give you some idea of what wattage/VA rating the UPS should have. Battery runtime is a separate parameter, and the UPS would need to be able to connect extended batteries if the proposed drive to campus is not short. This will also increase the cost of the UPS, of course. Also, if someone will ride to the rescue, the UPS will need to be able to send alarms (usually a network connection is required).
You didn't mention which UPS systems you've looked at so far. We have direct experience with APC and Eaton, and a little exposure to XPC. Have you been dealing directly with the UPS makers, or with partners/distributors?
Happy to dive deeper into specifics with additional information on your power loads...
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Mahmud Siddiqi, PhD
Imaging Facility Manager
Carnegie Science / Embryology
Baltimore, MD USA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2024 13:16
From: Anthony Stender
Subject: Advice for Power Backup for Mass Spectrometry Equipment
I am looking for some advice regarding power backup for our facility's two Mass Spectrometers (Bruker ultrafleXtreme MALDI-TOF/TOF and a Thermo Q Exactive Orbitrap). We have looked into purchasing UPS for both systems, but we feel like we are getting a run-around by the MS vendors as well as by UPS vendors. We are also having a difficult time determining what UPS we should invest in.
We have rather frequent power disruptions, and over the summer, we had a major outage that lasted more than 6 hours. We do have some outlets that offer backup power in emergency situations, but there have been occasions this year when even the backup power doesn't come on. (Because that would be too much to ask for.) And we are well aware that the university's backup generators do not produce very clean power output. As a result, we need both power backup and power conditioning.
Can anyone offer some advice on selecting the right UPS for MS? One of our biggest questions is "how much battery backup should we purchase?" It's felt that we need enough battery life for someone to drive to campus to power everything down, but we are open to other philosophies, if anyone has some valuable insights on that question.
Thanks!
Anthony
Anthony S. Stender, Ph.D.
Core Manager
Creighton University