Peter Bentley asked:


Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) have for a long time played a vital role in data centre installations. Commercial and industrial enterprises facing unrelenting and ever expanding demand for their online data processing resource have become steadily more dependent on the quality and reliability of power that only an online UPS can provide. Now, developing economical and political trends are putting even more pressure on data centre operators to source the most efficient and flexible power solution possible. Electricity costs are rising sharply due both to increasing per-unit prices and to increasing consumption as server capacity is added. More servers create more demand for limited floorspace. Meanwhile, businesses increasingly need to demonstrate their commitment to a green power strategy and low carbon footprint.

 

The good news is that recent advances in UPS technology, particularly the change from transformer based to transformerless design, have allowed systems such as Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd’s PowerWAVE Series to meet these stringent demands. Transformerless design brings immediate benefits of more efficient power conversion from a much smaller space; in addition it has allowed Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd to build these benefits into a fundamentally better and more flexible UPS design approach. This evolution can be illustrated by comparing the transformerless design with the transformer based solution that it replaces.

 

Although different UPS topologies are available, the most popular type is a static online double conversion architecture. This design uses a rectifier to convert the incoming mains to DC for battery charging, then an inverter to convert back to AC to drive the critical load. During normal operation or mains failure the inverter feeds the load. If the battery is discharged or the UPS fails, the load is bypassed to raw mains. This arrangement is equally true for transformer or transformerless design, with the difference being in the implementation of the rectifier, inverter and battery circuits.

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The transformer designs use a phase controlled rectifier, which had several drawbacks. The DC output voltage from this rectifier type was insufficient for the inverter to achieve the same AC output voltage level as the incoming mains supply, which is why a transformer was essential as an integral part of the design. The transformer adds significantly to the size of the UPS, while the phase controlled rectifier is also bulky, as well as creating input harmonic distortion and power factor problems.

 

Recent advances in power semiconductor technology and the advent of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) device have made the transformerless UPS a viable proposition. The phase controlled rectifier has been replaced by a free running rectifier followed by a DC converter which boosts the rectifier output to a much higher level, allowing the inverter to directly produce an output AC voltage compatible with the original input voltage. The transformer has been eliminated.

 

This elimination has a significant effect on overall UPS efficiency, improving it by about 5% to yield a substantial reduction in heat loss, electricity costs and cooling costs. This 5% improvement applies irrespectively of how closely to capacity the UPS is loaded.

 

The transformerless UPS produces an input power factor much closer to unity and less load dependant than the transformer design. This reduces the magnitude of the input currents, in turn minimising the size of the cabling and switchgear, and in some instances, reducing the electricity costs. The improved rectifier can also reduce the total input current harmonic distortion (THDi) in a three-phase UPS from around 30% to less than 3%, considerably reducing harmonic emissions and easing compliance with industry guidelines. Improved battery management also becomes possible.

 

The savings in space and weight are even more significant. Because a transformerless system eliminates both the 12-pulse rectifier and transformer of the earlier design, the footprint of a 120kVA system shrinks from 1.32m2 to 0.53m2, while the weight is reduced from 1000Kg to 370Kg.

 

Data centre operators can therefore achieve the space, efficiency and green improvements they need simply by changing to a transformerless design. In an example with a 200kVA UPS supplying a user’s load of 165kVA, the total saving in cost of ownership over five years can amount to nearly £41,000, with nearly 230 tonnes reduction in carbon emissions and a carbon neutral offset of 353 trees.

 

 Apart from these immediate benefits, the transformerless size factor has opened new horizons, by enabling the concept of the PowerWAVE9000DPA modular rackmountable three phase UPS system, which comprises up to five modules within a single rack. Each module is a complete, self contained UPS which can operate in parallel with, but independently from the others. This concept allows Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd to offer users more flexible solutions with better redundancy, availability, resilience and scalability than any previously available solution.

 

ENDS

 

About Uninterruptible Power Supplies Limited

The UK’s leading supplier of power protection systems in United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Ireland. It backs its PowerWAVE™ products with comprehensive technical installation, commissioning and maintenance services.

 

The company has recently introduced the PowerWAVE9000DPA Series™ which is the third generation of its renowned rack-mount modular UPS system. It also supplies standby generators, software to monitor and control uninterruptible power supplies and to control the orderly shutdown of critical systems.

 

In addition to publishing an authoritative handbook on the subject entitled The UPS Handbook (Published in October 2007 – 3rd edition), the company is an Institution of Engineering and Technology Endorsed Training Provider.

 

Editorial contact:

Richard Broughton

Dryden Brown Limited

Building 2, Shamrock Quay

Southampton, SO14 5QL, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 23 8022 9041

Fax: +44 (0) 23 8022 7274

Email: info@dryden.co.uk     



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Deepak Khanna asked:


The need for Systems Analysis and Design

Most of you must have heard about “System analysis and design” but many may not know exactly what is the importance of this. Lets have a look here at this here.

We are living in the information age. All businesses require information systems in order to operate effectively. Systems analysis and design is the process of developing information systems that effectively use hardware, software, data processes and people to support the company’s business objectives. Systems analysis is normally done by a systems analyst working in the IT department in conjunction with users from the user department. Systems analysis processes involve team work. A successful project team consist of welltrained people from IT as well as user departments.

Through a focus on offering total solutions which address clients’ needs precisely and completely, the Systems analysis and design professionals emphasizes the importance of planning, analysis, and solution design in the process of evaluating and acquiring infrastructure solutions. Planning and conducting and needs assessment are often some of the crucial first steps. Analysis involves collecting and interpreting data around the current environment and performance, as well as mapping trends. Solution design involves the “blueprint” or architecture of the infrastructure as guided by the results of the planning and analysis

As technology becomes exponentially more important to modern day businesses, the benefits of capacity planning are seen throughout the data center and in the bottom line. Systems analysis and design capacity planning specialists work with organizations to plan for growth and future needs while establishing their current infrastructure to perform optimally. This way they help companies identify potential bottlenecks and establish an environment that will meet needs today and tomorrow.



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Ibrahim Machiwala asked:


There are no direct benefits for the owner to own a patent because hundreds of patents and products lie in dust in the federally funded universities and research laboratories across the country. A patent or product should be adopted, purchased or leased by a corporation for development, manufacturing and marketing, without direct financial benefits.

To capitalize on the government’s investment in federal research, the skills and technology must be recognized in the market arena, so that when commercialized, will not only strengthen the nation’s socioeconomic well-being in the global marketplace, but also ensures its security and prominence.

A transfer agent makes federally funded research available to private industry, for finding new applications for new inventions, technologies, and products. So royalties and revenue could be returned to the research agency that fund additional studies and projects.

LipidLabs, Inc, partners with Fortune 500 companies, small enterprises, universities, and research institutions bringing innovations to market. Finding or funding private and publicly held corporations LipidLabs turns research into reality. With a network of US federal government agency laboratories and technical facilities LipidLabs promotes and facilitates the rapid movement of federal research results and technologies into the mainstream of the US economy.

As reported in The Washington Post dated December 12, 2006, “the incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees announced that they would extend current budget levels until the 2008 fiscal year begins next October 1.

Those American Competitiveness Initiative agencies: NIST, NSF and DOE/Science will most likely not receive the increases for their programs that they were expecting. Also, numerous authorizing legislative proposals sponsored over the past year have potentially made impacts on the technology community in general.

This bill addresses most of the recommendations of the National Academies’ “Gathering Storm” report as well as responding to proposals made as part of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative. If passed by the Senate, it could go to conference with the two House bills that came out of the House Science Committee this fall: the Research for Competitiveness Act (H.R.5356) and the Science and Mathematics Education and Competitiveness Act (H.R.5358), and possibly others.

Regarding intellectual property legislation, the most salient bill currently in process is the Patent Reform Act of 2006 (S.3818), introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee in August. The bill tries to limit litigation by providing for a more robust post-grant review process and removing several underlying elements of the litigation system, as well as moving the U.S. to a first-to-file from a first-to-invent rule.

Regarding small business innovative research legislation, the Small Business Administration is up for reauthorization in 2008, and in fall 2006 both the Senate and House proposed reauthorization legislation. The Senate bill (S.3778), introduced in the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee (SB&E), focuses on SBIR/STTR programs specifically, proposing to gradually increase the set-aside for the SBIR program to “no less than 5%” by 2011 and 0.6% immediately for the STTR program, effectively doubling the funding for both.

Patents Depend on Quality Act (H.R. 5096- Introduced 4/5/06): “A bill to amend title 35, United States Code, to modify certain procedures relating to patents.” This bill addresses many of the issues covered in the early comprehensive patent reform legislation, with language on injunctions and post-grant review procedures.

These bills had fairly strong bipartisan support, particularly on the Senate side—the greater challenge will be to bridge the gap between the more expansive Senate bill and the very narrowly defined House bills. Then, of course, the bills have to be funded.



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Bob Jent asked:


Advanced technology makes it possible for the oil and gas industry to produce resources from beneath sensitive environments. The size of a drilling pad has been reduced by up to 80 percent. If Alaska’s Pruhhoe Bay oil field was opened today with current technology its footprint would be almost a third of its current size. Much less of the topography needs to be disturbed today compared to 30 years ago.

Fewer dry holes are being developed due to new seismic and remote sensing technologies resulting in less disturbance of the environment.

U.S. Petroleum production generates on average 7 to 8 barrels of water per barrel of oil. This water is called produced water and is the water that comes out of the well with the oil and gas. It can include water from the reservoir being drilled, water that has been injected into the formation and any chemicals added. Handling, treatment and disposal of this produced water have been tough challenges for oil producers for decades.

New techniques to clean the contaminants in produced water are being used and drilling fluids have become more environmentally friendly. Water quality has been improved significantly. Advanced reservoir management techniques are also being used to enhance well placement and reduce water production.

Surface ecosystems are disturbed less now because a single well can be drilled from the surface and used horizontally to find oil or gas production zones sometimes miles away. One surface area is disturbed instead of many preserving more of the ecosystem of the surface. The ability to drill horizontally for miles is very important for offshore drilling because one rig can do the work of three that had to be used previously, also creating less risk of environmental damage. The volume of drilling waste has also been reduced by 65 percent

Oil companies like, Western Pipeline Corporation, are also drilling smaller diameter holes and using new drilling techniques to cut waste, fuel consumption, noise and emissions. One technique is called Slimhole Drilling. The holes are six inches or less. Another is mico-hole coiled tubing drilling. Microelectronics is used for guidance control and evaluation of the formations. Exploratory drilling to areas 5,000 to 7,000 feet is possible with 2 inch diameter boreholes.

It takes 22,000 fewer wells per year today to develop the same amount of oil and gas reserves as it did in 1985. The vistas in areas of oil and gas production have improved tremendously as well as the whole ecosystem of the surface.



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Sabrina Hinds asked:


For the uninitiated, the term broadband phone is loosely used to describe the technology currently available where one can make telephone calls from a telephone system that sends the voice signal over your internet connection. The call may terminate at a regular phone line or another broadband phone.

Until recently, the technology was not being used widely because of its perceived limitations, including lack of features available. The primary issue however has been that of poor call quality.

Now, continuing improvements in the industry and increased competition pushing the development of the technology have resulted in significant progress, to the extent that some analysts now predict that broadband phones (really Voice over Internet Protocol technologies) will dominate the long distance calling market by 2010 - maybe sooner.

Here are some specific reasons why you may find broadband phones a good fit at this stage.

Reason #5: Portability and Ease of Use

The equipment provided by the broadband phone companies can be used wherever you have access to a high speed connection. Most broadband service companies do not restrict you from traveling with your phone. As long as the network that you are plugging into will “automagically” assign your broadband device an internet address (IP address) - and most will - you are up and running.

This means that you can be in a hotel in Japan and still be accessible at the same phone number - your kids or staff don’t need to know the hotel’s number.

Reason #4: Long Distance Savings

Broadband services typically come with lower long distance rates than you can get from most traditional carriers. This calculates into immediate cost savings. Some services allow you to add one or more virtual numbers to your main phone number. This means that your phone may be able to receive calls from 2 or more different area codes. This virtually eliminates long-distance phoning charges for anyone calling within those numbers’ area codes.

Reason #3: Freedom from Tariffs

For the time being, calls made over the internet are not subject to a lot of the tariffs that afflict your regular phone bill. How long will this persist? There are different opinions on this in the industry, but right now it’s a nice advantage that makes for an even lower phone bill.

Reason #2: Availability of High Speed Internet

All the cost saving and convenience reasons already mentioned would not do much to propel the growth of the broadband phone market if consumers did not have access to high speed connections at their homes.

Broadband phones perform the best when using cable or DSL highspeed internet connections. While companies that have local area networks with high speed connections to the internet can investigate VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) relatively easily.

Reason #1: Clarity of Sound

The top reason why broadband phone services are currently making swift inroads is that the call quality has significantly improved. All of the major players now offer services that work satisfactorily for residential use and some can consistently meet the most stringent business requirements for clarity.

Finally, considering the initial small investment that may be required to get a broadband phone account up and running, the volume of savings you are likely to experience within a short period is very significant. The flexibility, ease of use (technical know-how not needed) combined with improvement in quality definitely makes this bandwagon a good ride



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Robert Burko asked:


Your online or bricks and mortar electronics outlet may already be using an email marketing program to promote its products and keep in subscriber with current customers. But, how can you maximize the potential of this tool to create greater sales growth on a more consistent basis? One way to enhance your use of email marketing software is through expanding your subscriber list. Growing your subscriber list through promotions and contests can increase your potential for sales. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why that’s where you want to be.

One effectual way to amplify your subscriber list with an email marketing program is to have contests, online or in your store. This form of promotion will act as an incentive for your customers to sign up to your mailing list. Your online store can place a sign-up box on its website, asking visitors to sign up to receive promotional offers. You can offer a free TV, computer, gaming system, or entertainment center. Give away whatever you can, depending on your budget. Just make sure the prize is relevant to your target audience, to ensure higher numbers are signing up.

Another way for an online store to increase sign-ups is through a “forward to friends” contest. This can be done from your website or from the emails that you send to your existing subscriber list from your email marketing program. The contest winners are those that sign up the most “friends” or “forward” the most emails. The better email marketing software solutions will offer you the option to automatically add a ‘Forward to a Friend’ link at the bottom of your emails. The very best email marketing software will even track which of your subscribers clicked on that link and forwarded your email contest to their friends.

In-store promotions and contests are quite similar. The only difference is that you have to present the promotion within your email campaigns, and not on your website. You will also provide the opportunity to sign up in store through an application form, or by dropping off their business cards. Within you email send outs you can also add the “forward to friends” promotion. Email marketing software can track your subscribers’ “clicks” to determine the winner of the contests.

Once you have a bigger audience, you can consistently promote and continually grow your database while also increasing your sales. Developing a plan to enhance your consumer base can have other positive effects too. If your contest becomes consistent (once a year, or one in summer/one in winter) you will create “a buzz” around your store.

This is huge!

Having customers anticipating your promotions is the best way to increase your brand recognition and image to the public. You will have a competitive edge against the big box stores, and as an independently-owned electronics retailer you can’t ask for a better way to stay ahead of the conglomerates. So you’re well on your way to being one of the giants.

You’ve already seen how email marketing software can help you keep in contact with your current customers, so why not maximize the potential of your on-line or in-store electronics and technology store by using it to grow your subscriber list? The contests and promotions you establish through email marketing software will expand your number of subscribers as well as promote your brand name. The bottom-line is that more subscribers translate to more potential sales.



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