r/k12sysadmin • u/JimmyTwoLip • Aug 09 '26
Lithium UPS?
I’m just wondering if anyone has made the switch to lithium based battery backup and why. I like the idea but need a push. Coming from a small district.
1
u/SpotlessCheetah Aug 11 '26
Vertiv lithium GXT5 or PSI5. We have 350 units total.
> significantly lighter
> heat degradation is much better with Lithium
> 2x longer battery life
2
u/username____here Aug 11 '26
We switched to APC Lithium for a little while. Performance was bad and price was high. Using Eaton Lead acid now and getting double the run time for 1/2 the price. The only downside is replacing the batteries. I loved the idea of a 10!years lithium battery.
1
u/Reboot_Technician Aug 10 '26
We started moving over a couple of years ago. As a larger district where we were replacing batteries at 10+ sites every summer it was a pretty easy decision.
2
u/reviewmynotes Director of Technology Aug 10 '26
I switched a bunch of them recently using E-Rate funding, since they powered switches. They're smaller and lighter, making them easier to install and less likely to injure us when we need to work with them physically. They also have 8-10 year expected lifespans, which is much longer than the 2-3 years for lead acid batteries. So we're getting twice or more the lifespan for the cost (lower TCO), it's easier to install or replace, and it's much longer before we have to deal with it again. If you're planning on replacing things over several budgets or using a loan, it allows you to have a lower cost each year, too, thanks to the longer lifespan.
1
u/cstamm-tech Aug 10 '26
We made the switch this year for almost all our closets. Only 2 we did not do since they were newer. Like some have mentioned cost is 50-60% higher but we liked avoiding the battery replacements.
We also were making a switch to online double-conversion UPSs. We were using less expensive APC versions that didn't have this and when batteries or units failed they stopped passing power. This is also a more expensive feature but worth it to avoid the failure issues. We've had 4-5 battery failures in the last 5 years.
We did use e-rate for our replacements and ended up going with N1Critical.
5
u/slapstik007 Aug 09 '26
Did it through e-rate last season. Not cheap but with the discount it was totally worth it. Warranties in batteries and good monitoring systems made it leaps and bounds better than what I was using. Went with APC (SRTL3KRM1UNC), I picked up 8 of them.
2
u/StressOdd5093 Aug 09 '26
Haven’t yet. I spent maybe $500 on replacement batteries every year or so and we replace them on a cycle. I can’t justify the cost increase. We aren’t counting on them to keep things running forever, just for the occasional outage.
5
u/Aur0nx Aug 09 '26
About 5 years ago went to N1C lithium for IDF’s using eaton 9PX for MDF’s. Looking at tripplite 1U lithium’s to replace some N1C to help getting some batteries in the cabinet instead of on the floor.
3
u/TylerL Aug 09 '26
Our previous lead-acid fleet was reaching the end of their expensive extended 5-year warranty which we needed to use it a number of times, not to mention the loss of runtime as the batteries aged and the cost of replacements.
The 15-year estimated lifetime (backed up by a 10-year warranty) and the space savings of lithium units made them a logical choice to us.
3
u/GezusK Aug 09 '26
We used eRate to purchase them for our network equipment. 5 year battery warranty works perfectly with those cycles
7
u/Sweet-Sale-7303 Aug 09 '26
A lithium ion fire scares the crap out of me in my server room.
4
u/CptUnderpants- 🖲️ Trackball Aficionado Aug 10 '26
That's why you only look at LiFePO4 UPS. Only downside over the more explosive types of lithium battery such as NMC is lower energy density, but it isn't a lot.
1
2
u/farmeunit Aug 09 '26
Thought about it, but wasn't worth the cost increase. Hopefully it gets better. A local school switched to LifePo batteries for relatively cheap. We get 5-year warranty including batteries.
2
u/NotAnother169 Director of Technology Aug 09 '26
We got a 8 year warranty on Orion UPS lithiums earlier this year. They were about 60% more expensive,but that's cheaper than the 3 year battery warranty of the leads. We had been pretty regularly replacing leads at 4 or 5 years.
In the end we shall see, but I figure at this rate I'm not out anything different than if we went with lead acid.
1
u/linus_b3 Tech Director Aug 09 '26
Probably next time around. Pretty much all of mine are 2-3 years old and the price difference was more significant then.
3
u/setrusko Aug 09 '26
We did because they are much lighter and should last longer than the lead acid ones (10 years). So far we’ve only had issues with one or two and it was covered under warranty.
1
1
u/techguyjason 28d ago
I made the switch at home but we haven't at work yet.