Speaking of Batteries
April 16th, 2008
They need to be replaced in my UPS every 3-5 years, or my uninterruptable power supply is, well, interruptable. I discovered this on Monday, when the power flickered and my office went deadly silent. For a moment I was stunned: “I have a UPS; this can’t be happening!”, when the I-am-totally-out-of-juice alarm started screaming on the UPS. My battery was as old as the UPS, about 6 years, so it was due to be replaced, but I’d never thought twice about it, lo these 6 years it’s been saving me from abrupt system power-downs. After 10 minutes of testing and prodding, it looks like it’s totally dead. I ordered a new battery right away, and it came today. Fortunately, I wasn’t in the middle of anything important, and my drives survived unscathed, but the value of saving and shutting down in the event of a power outage (or skipping blissfully over a flicker) can’t be overstated.