Protect Backup Batteries – Smart Power System Appliances
Servato’s Smart Power Systems are far more advanced than other monitoring-only equipment. Servato appliances do more than just record surface-level battery measurements – they actively adapt the charging of the batteries to increase battery life and ensure the healthiest batteries possible.
Unique Positioning Between the Rectifier and Batteries: Key Features
Smart Power System appliances sit in line with the rectifier and batteries positioning Servato to control the charge of the batteries. This placement is only possible because of the patented technology that allows Servato to electronically or “virtually” disconnect batteries while still maintaining their availability for instantaneous backup power. Unique one-way switching within Servato appliances allow this revolutionary configuration.
Using this ability to control the charging of batteries allows Servato to remove batteries from float and rest them much of the time. The rest period enables several key benefits to the batteries and to the battery sites:
Accuracy
More accurate measurements compared to tests conducted on batteries while they sit on float allowing for earlier detection of battery issues.
Life Extension
Rested batteries produce less heat and are subject to less of the internal degradation, gassing and corrosion that occurs gradually during constant charge of the batteries.
Safety
The risk of thermal runaway is completely eliminated with adaptive charging.
Reduced Cooling
With less ambient heat generated by the batteries site temperature drops, enabling cost savings on cooling and protecting other heat-sensitive equipment.
Adaptive Charging: A New Concept
Servato Technical Leadership
Servato has pioneered Adaptive Charging as a new and improved methodology for charging batteries in telecom standby applications. Float charging actually results in constant overcharging, higher internal temperature and increased positive plate polarization increases grid corrosion, dehydration, and active material degradation. In other words, batteries fail more quickly than necessary when float charged.
Servato regularly presents our thought leadership at technical conferences of all kinds. The presentation at right is from Battery Power 2016.
See the Presentation >>
Float, Intermittent, and Adaptive Charging
Float
Float charging has been and still is successfully used and is the industry standard method for maintaining full charge and providing satisfactory life for standby VRLA batteries. Despite the wide adoption and the general reliability of float charging, it is not perfect and has a drawback when used with VRLA batteries. Float charging actually results in constant overcharging, higher internal temperature and increased positive plate polarization increases grid corrosion, dehydration, and active material degradation. In other words, batteries fail more quickly than necessary when float charged.
Intermittent
Another form of charging, Intermittent of Periodic Charging sequentially float charges for a set period of time and then places batteries on open circuit (rest) for another predetermined period. The success of intermittent charging is very dependent on float/open circuit ratio particularly because fixed ratios do not adapt to temperature changes and other factors. This results in overcharge or undercharge.
Adaptive
Adaptive charging – using constantly refreshed data on key battery measurements to determine the precise charging necessary at any given point adjusts the charging to compensate for temperature variations and can thus adapt the necessary float/open circuit ratio to charge the batteries optimally. Charge is terminated by a dv/dt algorithm, which limits both overcharging and undercharging. The result is substantial battery life extension.
Servato Active Battery Management Products
SPS-48
Appliance capable of managing up to 4 strings of 12V VRLA batteries in -48V configurations.
SPS-148
Appliance capable of managing up a single string of 12V VRLA batteries in -48V configuration. “The 148” can be daisy chained to manage up to 16 strings at a single site.
ActiView
Battery management software for alerts and reports accessible via any web-enabled device.