On Mon, 21 Aug 2017 23:52:41 -0400, rickman wrote:

>>> The fire alarms and emergency lighting are all SLA powered. The
>>> batteries are still good after about 10 years ...
>>
> > Not APC kit then, thier stuff cooks batteries in around 3 to 4 years.
>
> That's just not true.  I have APC units that have lasted over a decade
> and still going strong.  It might actually be closer to two decades.

With orginal batteries and actually able to run off battery for
roughly the time expected for the load?

My APC UPS has a manufactured date of 11 Mar 98 and it is fine but is
on it's fourth or fith (I think) set of batteries. I found out the
hard way, twice, that even though it says the batteries are OK, fully
charged and decent voltage, try and draw any power from 'em and they
die very quickly. Last time there was a strange smell, eventually
tacked down to the UPS with an almost too hot to touch case. The
batteries:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/allsorts-60/16591022171

After that I looked up the spec for the batteries and recomended
float voltage v temperature. The APC charge voltage was nearer to the
specified cyclic charge voltage at room temperature let alone the 40
C that the batteries ran at. I "got at" the charge circuit reduced
the voltage down to what it should be for float charging at 30 C and
fitted a small fan. That was back in 2014, these batteries are still
good. Left to APC they'd be cooked or very nearly so by now.

I've also seen a couple of rack mount APC UPS's with cooked/swollen
batteries. One had to be junked as to remove the batteries would have
required the chassis cutting apart.

--
Cheers
Dave.

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