In efforts for emergency preparedness, most of BCFM's repeaters are on battery backup in the event of AC failure. 2 volt, flooded lead-antimony cells and a Lambda float charger. The battery bank is floated by the charger all the time and the equipment is powered directly from the batteries. With AC all power for the equipment is supplied by the charger. In the event of AC failure, the charger is automatically isolated with by a 300A diode to prevent back-feeding, and the equipment keeps on operating on battery power.
Power distribution involves a high current side and a low current side.
For all the other loads, one of the high current feeds is broken down by a separate fuse panel, with individual fuses for each load. Both the fuse panel and the power distribution panel incorporate fuse failure alarms, which are monitored by the RLC-3 Controller. In the future, these current readings will be displayed on an LCD panel in the same equipment bay. Testing has shown that under light to normal use we can get a number of days of operation on battery. If you consider that in a disaster situation the load on the system will dramatically increase, we should be able to hold on for a number of hours until an alternate power source can be found.