It is very important to calculate UPS load for your data center so as to build a proper estimation on power requirement. This way the data center company won't end up investing unnecessarily in UPS, generators and cooling powers. The first step in calculating the UPS load for data centers is that of assessing power needs. Check for strategic locations which are ideal from all industry spectrum. For example if it's a metropolitan city, there is more likeliness of constant power supply with rare chances of power outage. Depending upon a proper assessment, it can be decided whether the facility would need N, N+1 or 2N configuration for power and cooling.
Today, the data center architecture has evolved to be mobile and modular. Latest data center designs are flexible which enable the data center managers to calculate and estimate the right amount of power and cooling in the facility. Secondly, you also need to find out:
- Total load: Total load is the sum of the power consumption by all the IT equipment, machines and overall infrastructure
- Critical Load: The critical load includes the load of all those critical equipment that must be served and protected, like computer, server, storage devices, routers and other telecom components that which include the security systems.
- UPS Load: UPS is the most popular source of power back up for computing machines. UPS also comes along with efficiency issues because most of the times it remains unutilized and its battery charging consumes additional electricity.
Once you have estimated your power requirement, you will need to opt for right back up for different power loads. Usually, UPS are suggested as the ideal back up solution for critical IT load while generators serve the purpose for other mechanical and infrastructure load.
The formula for calculating cooling power needs at data center is
Watts=volts x amps x power factor (PF)
Where, watts is the useful power, apparent power is volt-amperes while power factor (PF) is the ratio of these two.
Today, most of the data center equipment has PF of 0.95-0.98.
Note: 1.0 PF is equal to a light bulb.
Depending upon the requirements, you can also calculate the UPS load capability for the computing and server components. There are several free as well as paid tools available which will help you calculate the UPS power need by connecting your load input into AMPS and vol amps.