Battery Maintenance Expert Panel Discussion

DC Power Hour

In this episode Allen hosts Pete DeMar, who has over 50 years of experience in the stationary battery industry, shared his background and expertise in battery failure analysis. Al Warner, with a history of involvement in batteries since his time on the farm, shared his experiences in the military and the UPS industry, highlighting his learning journey and continued interest in battery maintenance.

Episode Highlights

4:53 – I was, I guess, the whistleblower for VRLA batteries. I had, the main manufacturer at the time come to my location and had a battery assembled for them. I showed them every problem that they have with them. So IEEE came out with a document called IEEE 1188, and that became the standard for maintenance of VRLA batteries.

11:56 – UPS batteries are the heart of the UPS system. If you don't have a battery, it's not uninterruptible so battery maintenance is critical.

22:28 – Control algorithms that monitor the batteries kind of put the customer to sleep believing that the UPS is going to give them a warning before it fails, but that doesn't always happen.

22:28 – A brownout is where the utility lowers the voltage so they can provide for a few more customers and then there's of course the famous blackout and rolling blackouts.

29:24 – A totally separate problem that we have not actually discussed is, there are two things and one of those is, with large UPSs and DC battery systems, the arc flash calculations, they are way off.

49:35 – They're relying on the electronics to Safely take care of their batteries. Same thing is true with UPSs. They rely on the electronics and no inspection It's out of mind, out of sight.