The inventive subject matter generally relates to uninterruptible power supplies and, more particularly, to high density uninterruptible power supplies.
Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are commonly used in installations such as data centers, medical centers and industrial facilities. UPS systems may be used in such installations to provide backup power to maintain operation of computer, medical devices and other critical equipment in event of failure of a primary utility supply. These UPS systems commonly have an “on-line” configuration including a rectifier and inverter coupled by a DC link that is also coupled to a backup power source, such as a battery. Other UPS configurations may also be used, such as standby and line-interactive configurations.
However, data centers are evolving from data centers having dedicated IT equipment for specific applications to data centers having managed IT equipment that is application insensitive, i.e. cloud computing. This fundamental change to the data centers may have an impact on the type of UPS system needed to provide backup power to maintain operations in the data centers in the event of failure of the primary utility supply.
Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter provide high density uninterruptible power supplies including an enclosure and at least one uninterruptible power supply positioned in the enclosure. A battery associated with the at least one uninterruptible power supply is also positioned in the enclosure. The at least one uninterruptible power supply and the associated battery are configured to provide at least thirty seconds of backup power to a load connected thereto.
In further embodiments, the enclosure may be a first enclosure and the first enclosure may be configured to be connected to at least one power distribution unit. The at least one power distribution unit may be positioned in a second enclosure, separate from the first enclosure.
In still further embodiments, the at least one power distribution unit may include a plurality of receptacles therein.
In some embodiments, first enclosure may include at least one utility input connection that is configured to provide power from a utility.
In further embodiments, the power distribution unit in the second enclosure may include a utility input connection. The at least one power distribution unit may further include a transfer relay positioned in the second enclosure.
In still further embodiments, the at least one uninterruptible power supply includes four uninterruptible power supplies positioned in the first enclosure and each of the four uninterruptible power supplies may have an associated battery. The four uninterruptible power supplies may provide up to 30 seconds of battery.
Some embodiments of the present inventive subject matter provide systems for providing backup power including a first enclosure including at least one uninterruptible power supply and a battery associated with the at least one uninterruptible power supply. The at least one uninterruptible power supply and the associated battery are configured to provide at least thirty seconds of backup power to a load connected thereto. The system further includes at least one second enclosure, separate from the first enclosure, which includes a power distribution unit and is configured to be connected to the first enclosure.
In further embodiments, the power distribution unit may include a plurality of receptacles on the second enclosure.
In still further embodiments, the first enclosure may further include at least one utility input connection that is configured to provide power from a utility.
In some embodiments, the second enclosure including the power distribution unit may further include a utility input connection therein. The power distribution unit may further include a transfer relay positioned in the second enclosure.
In further embodiments, the at least one uninterruptible power supply includes four uninterruptible power supplies positioned in the first enclosure, each of the four uninterruptible power supplies having an associated battery. The four uninterruptible power supplies may provide up to 30 seconds of battery.
Still further embodiments of the present inventive subject matter provide power distribution units including a power distribution unit enclosure and at least one uninterruptible power supply positioned in the power distribution unit enclosure. A battery associated with the at least one uninterruptible power supply is also positioned in the power distribution unit enclosure. The at least one uninterruptible power supply and the associated battery are configured to provide at least thirty seconds of backup power to a load connected thereto. A plurality of receptacles are also provided on the power distribution unit enclosure.
In some embodiments, the power distribution unit may occupy zero U-space in IT racks.
Further embodiments of the present inventive subject matter provide high density uninterruptible power supplies including an enclosure; at least one uninterruptible power supply positioned in the enclosure; and a battery associated with the at least one uninterruptible power supply and positioned in the enclosure, wherein the enclosure does not contain any substantial means for cooling the at least one uninterruptable power supply and the battery in the enclosure.
In still further embodiments, a density of the high density uninterruptible power supply may be increased due to the absence of any substantial cooling means.
In some embodiments, the at least one uninterruptible power supply and the associated battery may be configured to provide at least thirty seconds of backup power to a load connected thereto.
In further embodiments, the enclosure comprises a first enclosure and wherein the first enclosure is configured to be connected to at least one power distribution unit, the at least one power distribution unit being positioned in a second enclosure, separate from the first enclosure. In certain embodiments, the at least one power distribution unit may include a plurality of receptacles therein.
In still further embodiments, at least one utility input connection may be included that is configured to provide power from a utility.
In some embodiments, the power distribution unit in the second enclosure may include a utility input connection. The at least one power distribution unit may include a transfer relay positioned in the second enclosure.
In further embodiments, the at least one uninterruptible power supply may be configured to provide no greater than about 30 seconds of battery.
The inventive subject matter now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the inventive subject matter are shown. In the drawings, the relative sizes of regions or features may be exaggerated for clarity. This inventive subject matter may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the inventive subject matter to those skilled in the art.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “coupled” or “connected” to another element, it can be directly coupled or connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly coupled” or “directly connected” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
In addition, spatially relative terms, such as “under”, “below”, “lower”, “over”, “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “under” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “under” can encompass both an orientation of over and under. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the inventive subject matter. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein the expression “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive subject matter belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
As discussed above, data centers are changing from application-dedicated IT equipment to managed servers operating in a cloud environment. In a cloud environment, applications can be moved quickly to other groups of servers or different locations in a matter of minutes. Thus, the reduction in time to suspend or relocate the application reduces the need for the traditional UPS and associated backup times. In other words, the reduction in backup time requirement may allow the battery to be reduced in size and, thus, can be incorporated within the IT equipment. For example, one implementation severs having a battery therein. In this implementation, the battery backup does not require any additional space in the rack, but the server is not very dense. Customers that make high density servers may need a dense UPS solution without special server designs.
Accordingly, some embodiments discussed herein provide a high density UPS solution suitable for use in evolving data centers. As will be discussed further below with respect to
Referring first to
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IT racks with provision to mount electronic chassis are commonly used in telecommunications and computer networking applications. A typical data center, for example, may include multiple racks in which equipment chassis, e.g., servers, storage units, power supplies and the like, are inserted and mounted. The amount of space a piece of equipment occupies in the IT rack can be expressed in “U” units, which is a unit of measure equal to 1.75. The PDU 110 including the receptacles 120, the UPS/battery 130 and various other circuitry not shown in
Referring now to
It will be understood that although four output receptacles/PDUs 215A through 215D are illustrated in
The output receptacles 215A through 215D can be mounted in the traditional zero-U space of the IT racks. The output receptacles 215A through 215D will have a smaller cross section than embodiments discussed above with respect to
Although some embodiments are discussed herein as occupying a certain amount of space in the IT racks, embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are not limited to this configuration. For example, embodiments discussed herein can occupy more or less space than discussed without departing from the scope of the subject matter discussed herein.
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Although embodiments of the present invention illustrated in
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As discussed above, some embodiments of discussed above with respect to
In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the inventive subject matter. Although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the inventive subject matter being defined by the following claims.