Review: Falcon Powers Up UPS

Solution providers can now offer these customers an insurance policy: a high-end, uninterruptible power supply from Falcon Electric. CRN Test Center engineers took a look at the Falcon Electric SSG Industrial-Grade Online UPS. The Falcon Electric UPS offers continuous power protection against power disturbances for mission-critical applications.

Available either to 1.5kVA or 3kVA, the SSG series can be deployed in the data center as either a rackmount system or a tower unit. The 1.5kVA unit only weighs 37 pounds and measures 2U high. The unit's orientation, rack or tower, needs to be specified at the time of the order.

A rugged unit, the SSG can withstand harsh environments, operating in data centers with temperatures as high as 131 degrees Fahrenheit. The unit lists at $1,390 and comes with a two-year product warranty.

The online UPS supports hot-swappable battery packs and regenerates continuous, clean, tightly regulated power regardless of incoming AC power quality. The double-conversion online SSG Series acts as a frequency converter for sensitive equipment, where it accepts a 50/60Hz input and provides a fixed 60Hz or 50Hz output that is free of surges and line noise. The output voltage is user-programmable as 100Vac, 110Vac, 115Vac or 120Vac. The SSG Series supplies a tightly regulated output of 2% and excellent extended brownout protection.

Solution providers will find the system ready to integrate into existing an infrastructure. Each model is equipped with an NFPA-70, NEC 645-11-compliant REPO interface used to integrate with factory automation, industrial and server farm applications.

The SSG's battery pack is hot-swappable. The batteries are enclosed in a single plastic 48Vdc pack. Users can swap out the entire pack for a new one through the front panel without taking the UPS, battery bank or extended battery modules out of the equipment rack or powering it down.

The pack is sealed, so there's no risk of accidentally putting in batteries incorrectly. For the green-conscious, this is another plus. With the sealed batteries, disposal is much easier. There's no risk of batteries leaking and defective battery packs are replaced instantly.

The batteries take about eight hours to charge up 90 percent. Extended battery banks can optionally be connected to extend runtimes. They are available with internal chargers for a reasonable recharge time.

As mentioned earlier, for a 9-to-5 shop where it's not a catastrophe if servers are down for an hour or two, the SSG may be overkill. On the other hand, military or government installations, hospitals and telecommunications firms can't afford to be down even for a second.

There's no transfer time for line fails and recovery. It takes less than 4 milliseconds for the UPS to bypass or reverse. Everything auto-transfers to the UPS after overload.

An easy-to-read LCD MIMIC graphic display shows power information, such as input and output voltage, frequency and load. The display can also be used to set up audible alarms and program various settings. The alarms indicate when the UPS is in DC mode, has low battery, is over/under voltage or over/ under frequency, reached too high temperatures or is overloaded. Various important functions, including programming load segments or having a single continuous segment, can be taken care of right from the display.

The communications interface consists of a USB port and an RS-232C serial port. There's also an optional SNMP/HTTP agent board that can be installed in the expansion slot located on the back of the model. The optional board allows remote management and monitoring over an Ethernet LAN, WAN and Internet over TCP/IP. Supplied client software can remotely shut down multiple workstations and servers attached to the UPS over the network. The USB port and the agent board can be used concurrently.

The SSG series comes with the UPSilon software to manage the system. The software handles unattended shutdown, management, data logging and power diagnostics for the UPS. UPSilon is compatible with all Windows operating systems, including Vista, Linux, FreeBSD and Novell NetWare. UPSilon for Unix is available at an additional cost.

Falcon Electric works with OEMs, distributors, resellers and systems integrators. Solution providers can sign up for the program by downloading an application from the Web site.

Systems integrators can work with the company to get products modified to meet specific integration needs. The company offers systems integrators short delivery times and dedicated engineering support. Customers have direct access to Falcon Electric's power engineers and technical support staff to discuss requirements and concerns.

Falcon Electric's channel program offers partners co-op and marketing funds. Partners receive leads generated through trade shows and advertising campaigns. Incentive programs are also available. Solution providers get a variety of sales tools, such as battery runtime charts, and receive sales and product training. At the moment, Falcon Electric's channel program is good but straightforward, and received three stars from engineers.

Falcon Electric has many of its products in military and government installations, investment banks and health-care centers because of its industrial-grade power capabilities. The ability to service the UPS without disconnecting it and to change battery packs is important in these kinds of high-energy environments. Solution providers in any of these verticals can consider the SSG Industrial-Grade Online UPS from Falcon Electric for all power-management needs.