Battery cabinet selling points

Battery cabinets are frequently criticized for their lack of top clearance. For example, in a cabinet containing multiple strings of low ampere-hour batteries, there might be several shelves, each with one string of cells. The cell units on each shelf might be arranged two, three, or more cells deep.

Ease of use is one of the principle selling points for battery cabinets. It is convenient to service the equipment when the UPS and the battery (ies) are right next to each other. Conversely, it is inconvenient to have to go to a separate room when open-rack batteries are installed.

The unique selling point of a custom battery cabinet design is the flexibility it offers concerning simplicity in access. The neat arrangement of cables and grouping them or naming them as per their usage becomes naturally easy.

Based on the size, the batteries are rack-mounted if they are above 100 AH and used in cabinets if they are below that level. The number of battery units and the respective size of the battery determines rack or cabinet usage.

One cabinet should be able to hold at least one complete string of cells. Best practice is that strings should not be split between two cabinets in order to ensure reliability of the entire string. Figure 1 - Battery cabinet with top terminal cells

As per general principle batteries are locked in cabinets or arranged in racks that are housed in access-protected rooms. Only authorized and skilled technicians are accessible to batteries at all times. The risk posed by an open rack battery is lethal (High voltage or arc blast) and hence access should be restricted only to authorized personnel.