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400A DC Power Retrofit Kit Offers Cost-Effective Solution

January 08, 2020 by Paul Shepard

UNIPOWER, Inc. has introduced the power industry's first 400 Amp dc power system retrofit kit to provide customers with a cost-effective alternative to replacing entire power management control systems.

Priced fractions lower than the costs of purchasing totally new equipment, UNIPOWER's new Guardian AGM Retrofit Kit is designed to replace the older, often obsolete power components.

"Some installed AGM power systems are more than 20 years old and well past their projected life span," said John Ely, UNIPOWER'S vice president of marketing. "Rather than have our customers spend 10s of thousands of dollars for a whole new dc power system, we can now offer a quick and easy solution that fits into existing cabinet enclosures." Many times, a 12U power section and a 2U alarm panel (14U total) can be replaced by a more compact and efficient 5U configuration.

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He added that "Typically, the integrated systems are sold in multi-shelf configurations where ancillary PCBs must be mounted elsewhere in the cabinet. Our Guardian AGM Retrofit Kit includes the input board already mounted onto the lower panel or harness to connect to the ACX controller. This is a foolproof way to make sure that the system is wired correctly."

The latest innovation from UNIPOWER features a 5RU-high 23-inch rack-mounted DC power system, an alarm panel providing a bulk output of -48Vdc, and a 3RU panel containing two rectifier/controller power shelves. Each shelf incorporates up to seven Guardian family high-efficiency hot-swap rectifier modules along with an ACX advanced system controller.

In addition, the Guardian AGM Retrofit Kit, which allows a maximum current of 400A, contains rectifiers that are internally fan-cooled with speed control based on load and temperature, keeping acoustic noise to a minimum. The 2RU alarm panel provides alarms for system failures using red, yellow and green LED indicators, the latter to ensure the ACX advanced controller is working properly.

Other notable features include Ethernet communications with SNMPv3, 10 Form-C relay alarms, an LCD display/touchpad, compatibility with UNIPOWER's free PowCom software which offers local and remote management via an advanced Windows graphical user interface (GUI), a three-year warranty and easy installation.

"We are now able to fulfill our customers' requests for a ‘plug and play' system that can replace the dated AGM power modules economically and have their systems wired and connected in just a few hours, not the 5-10 days it typically takes to install newly purchased systems", Ely said. "The Guardian AGM Retrofit Kit is quickly becoming one of the most popular additions to our product family."