Some engineers often pay more attention to the performance of UPS hosts when equipping power supplies, but neglect the selection of UPS batteries. Choosing inappropriate matching batteries often leads to accidents such as lack of UPS backup time, inability to discharge batteries, or short battery life. Below, we will analyze the selection of batteries based on several aspects. Batteries are an important component of the UPS system, and their quality directly affects the reliability of the entire UPS system. However, batteries are also the equipment with the shortest mean time between failures (MTBF) in the entire UPS system. If users can use and protect it correctly, their lifespan can be extended, otherwise their lifespan will be greatly shortened. The types of batteries can generally be divided into valve regulated sealed lead-acid batteries, gel batteries, etc. UPS requires that the selected battery must have the characteristic of outputting high current in a short period of time. Nowadays, the batteries that run online are basically of these two types and do not belong to lead-acid batteries.
(1) Valve regulated sealed lead-acid battery (VRLA)
Due to its small size, good sealing performance, and minimal protection, it is widely used in various UPS power supplies. There are two techniques for VRLA to prevent the flow of electrolyte inside the battery: one is to mix sulfuric acid electrolyte with SiO2 and colloid to fill the interior of the battery, making it a colloid battery (GEL). The production of such products is relatively low, accounting for about 15% of the total VRLA batteries. Another method is to use ultrafine glass wool to adsorb the electrolyte unsaturated, making liquid absorbing batteries or lean electrolyte batteries (AGM). Because Shengyang batteries have good high current discharge performance, they are commonly used in UPS systems, and most domestic manufacturers also produce AGM batteries.
(2) Colloidal battery
Colloidal batteries belong to a classification of lead-acid batteries. The simplest method is to add a gelling agent to sulfuric acid to make the sulfuric acid electrolyte gel. A battery in which the electrolyte is in a colloidal state is usually referred to as a colloidal battery. In a broad sense, the difference between colloidal batteries and conventional lead-acid batteries is not only that the electrolyte is changed to a gel embedded state. For example, non condensable solid water-based colloids belong to colloidal batteries based on their electrochemical classification structure and characteristics. For example, attaching high molecular weight materials in the grid, commonly known as ceramic grids, can also be regarded as a characteristic of the use of colloidal batteries. Recently, some laboratories have added a targeted coupling agent to the electrode plate formula, greatly improving the reaction utilization rate of the active substance in the electrode plate. According to non disclosed data, it can reach a weight specific energy level of 70wh/kg. These are examples of the current industrial practice and the use of colloidal batteries that need to be industrialized. The difference between colloidal batteries and conventional lead-acid batteries, from the initial understanding of electrolyte gelation to further research on the electrochemical characteristics of electrolyte basic structures, as well as the promotion of their use in grids and active materials. Its most important feature is to manufacture higher quality batteries with smaller industrial value, following the 150 year old lead-acid battery industry path. Its discharge curve is straight, the inflection point is high, the specific energy weight, especially the specific power, is more than 20% larger than conventional lead-acid batteries, and the lifespan is generally about twice that of conventional lead-acid batteries. Its high and low temperature characteristics are much better.