UPS runtime dropped from about 30 minutes to 5 during an outage

During a power outage, an UPS almost immediately began the shutdown process for its . The UPS normally looked like it could run for about 30 minutes, but at the moment of the outage its display showed only 5 minutes left.

The attached screens showed a sharp drop in both battery charge and estimated when the blackout happened. The UPS was only about 2 years old, and it had seen only around two real outages in that time.

Eaton’s was expected to help preserve the battery. The battery self-test passed, and a later test by unplugging the UPS did not reproduce the sudden charge drop; it again showed about 30 minutes of expected .

Key points

  • An UPS showed only about 5 minutes left during a real outage.
  • The usual estimated was about 30 minutes.
  • started their shutdown sequence almost immediately.
  • The UPS was about 2 years old and had only handled around two outages.
  • A battery self-test and a later unplug test both looked normal.
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