Hello Jason, On Fri, 2012-10-12 at 18:05 +1100, Jason White wrote:
I have an APC SmartUPS unit here which, as of today, is indicating that the battery needs changing. There may be an issue with the UPS hardware other than the battery - I wouldn't rule that out by any means.
I have a couple of UPS's, one is true sine wave and runs my clock radio, the mains up here is prone to dropouts that will unset the cock. The battery slowly failed, and gave almost no backup time for even a minor load. I bought the right replacement sealed lead acid battery from Jaycar and put in myself with ease. The second is modified sine wave, and the clock ran fast when the power failed, too fast even for brief outages. I was using it for a PC, but it has "failed" in some fashion. I will try replacing the battery on that in the near future also. It will cost, but much less than buying a full UPS will.
Who is reliable and experienced at UPS servicing in Melbourne?
As commented, it is not unduly difficult, but do ensure that it is fully turned off and unplugged, and whomever is changing the battery only goes near the 12 volt stuff, and nowhere near the 240 volt output or the inverter. Since they are in a sealed enclosure, apart from possibly connections to the output sockets, that is not difficult.
It's a home office environment if that makes any difference.
For my home environment, I was well able to do for myself, but then I was brought up on electronics, and electrics, both low voltage and mains. It is the current that does the damage, but it needs the volts to drive the (micro)amps to do damage. Also you need two connections and a current path. My father related how some colleagues in the UK had to work on a live switchboard, at high voltage. They put a wooden table there, with a sheet of glass on the top. Thus they were well insulated from any ground connection. The work was all conducted with one hand only, so no current path. They were able to touch a single live connection, and their body would "float" at that voltage, but as stated, no current path, no current flow, no harm. It does require considerable discipline and attention to detail to get it right, and considerable suppression of reflexes. Regards, Mark Trickett