UPS & Backup Power Sizing: VA vs Watts, Runtime, Batteries & Generators

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• List the equipment in Corvane Labs' server room, turn measured watts into volt-amperes with each device's power factor, and find the overall power factor of the load.
• Add growth and a design loading limit to Corvane's load, then pick the smallest UPS whose VA and W ratings both cover it.
• Turn the battery string of the 10 kVA UPS into usable AC energy and estimate runtime at six load levels, then chart the runtime curve.
• Size the battery for 15 minutes at Corvane's load: blocks per string from the DC bus voltage, the energy needed at end of life, and how many parallel strings that takes.
• Estimate how long the VRLA batteries at five Corvane sites really last at their room temperatures, set a replacement interval and the battery cost per year.
• Size the standby generator for Corvane's server room: running kVA of every load, the extra surge when a compressor starts, the peak, and the next standard generator size.
• Turn the MTBF and repair time of one UPS module into availability, then compute the availability and yearly downtime of N, N+1, N+2 and 2N with BINOM.DIST.
• Compare two UPS options for Corvane over ten years: purchase, energy lost in the UPS, maintenance and battery replacements, then chart the cumulative costs to find where the lines cross.