Backup power generators for business

[rhuntley12]

Anyone in the business of backup power for businesses or have a company to suggest? We have battery backup for our servers and our looking into gas/oil/whatever backup for them and also possibly for our warehouse, and don't really know any local companies

[robert]

You don't say where you're located but...

Be careful if you're going to be running your servers on generators, let me explain why. Battery backup (UPS) isn't going to last that long, especially if you have multiple servers plugged into one unit. These UPS systems are generally software controlled and send a signal to your server to shut down cleanly when the batteries are ready to die.

Here's the problem. The cheaper UPS units (like APC) do NOT filter power and maintain a clean 120 VAC, what goes in will come out and hit your servers/workstations directly. Generators are not known for clean power, and i've seen them spike to 150 VAC and brown down to 80 VAC - this isn't good for your servers power supplies. Do check which UPS units you have before considering this, if they do filter, then great

[lilsundance]

check with the boys at Cummins. They have back up generators for business's like hospitals, hotels casino's etc. Various sizes and will match your needs to the appropriate unit and all extras like transfer switches etc.

[sheep nut]

We sell and install automatic generators. Check'em out

http://passeyelectric.hbpsc.com

[rhuntley12]

Originally Posted by robert

You don't say where you're located but...

Be careful if you're going to be running your servers on generators, let me explain why. Battery backup (UPS) isn't going to last that long, especially if you have multiple servers plugged into one unit. These UPS systems are generally software controlled and send a signal to your server to shut down cleanly when the batteries are ready to die.

Here's the problem. The cheaper UPS units (like APC) do NOT filter power and maintain a clean 120 VAC, what goes in will come out and hit your servers/workstations directly. Generators are not known for clean power, and i've seen them spike to 150 VAC and brown down to 80 VAC - this isn't good for your servers power supplies. Do check which UPS units you have before considering this, if they do filter, then great

We have pretty sophisticated battery backup units here that can run all our servers for just over 2 hours. Let me tell you they were not fun to install as they weigh so much. We aren't going to be really running the servers off the generator it's really the AC units in the server rooms as the heat is what becomes an issue before the batteries even run out, and while we are at it might as well install a generator big enough for th warehouse.

Thanks for the suggestion I'll take a look at cummins.

[Iskra]

Another place to look for genset is Finning.