Apex Technologies USA, a specialty distribution company, whose brands include Meridian Audio, TPI Cinema, and HDAnywhere, is investing into what is arguably one of the most controversial categories in the electronics market: power protection.
Spearheading the company’s efforts to bring quality power protection and conditioning solutions to the custom installation industry are two power category veterans. Vince Luciani, power specialist, and Jimmy Paschke, vice president of sales for Apex Technologies. Combined, Luciani and Paschke have decades of experience in the development, design, and sales of power products.
Together Luciani and Paschke are working towards the goal of providing Apex Technologies USA’s dealers a range of power solutions that protect their system installations, while delivering high levels of value.
Apex Technologies Explains the Root Causes of Power Related Issues
Admittedly, Luciani acknowledges the power category has historically been littered with products using questionable circuit designs, technologies, and materials. Luciani asserts that Apex Technologies products utilize validated technologies and designs to ensure that integrators can deliver the full potential of their system installations.
“I agree that the power category has traditionally been plagued with ‘snake-oil’ and fear-based sales tactics. I think that when manufacturers started studying not only power disturbances, but the effects these power disturbances have on electronics, the landscape of power products evolved,” says Luciani.
2024 Lighting Controls and Fixtures Report
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.Download your copy now!
“That is why when Jimmy and I brought a line of power products to Apex Technologies – US. Our approach was to curate a line of products that effectively address power quality issues. We consult with our integration partners and equip them with this knowledge so they can provide solutions that result in actual power quality improvements.”
Explaining on how they arrived upon Apex Technologies’ curated product solutions, Luciani says that everyone understands that voltage surges caused by lightning strikes are real, but he says that he and Paschke discovered through research that smaller surges in the home caused by motors and other components occur regularly.
“Through the use of detailed power monitoring devices, we found that other types of power disturbances not only existed, but in most cases, are much more prevalent than surges,” notes Luciani. “Grid-based voltage fluctuations in the form of voltage sags, over voltages, and power losses of varying durations are quite common all over the country. However, voltage fluctuations can also be caused by electrical loads inside the home. If you ever experienced the lights briefly dimming when the air conditioner comes on, you just witnessed a voltage sag.”
Another factor in the state of home power today that negatively impacts the quality of the electricity that comes into peoples’ homes Paschke points out is the sheer fact that population increases are placing a greater burden on the grid. The lack of capacity Paschke continues results in under voltages and sustained power losses.
Luciani says over the past several years a growing number of electronics companies have studied how power disturbances have had on their products. Summarizing the reasons why components fail Luciani states, products typically fail for three reasons:
Immediate End of Life is easy to get your head around he comments. “Lightning hits your house and blows up your equipment,” points out Luciani. A single event results in immediate failure of equipment.
The second category is, “premature end of life,” and Luciani comments this factor was studied extensively by the semiconductor industry. “Premature end of life is defined as an electronic component not lasting to its theoretical lifespan. Their research coined the phrase ‘Electrical Over Stress’ (EOS) which is defined as an electrical component’s maximum electrical specifications being exceeded,” he explains. “This research also revealed that semiconductors can actually be weakened by EOS. It’s like a boxer being weakened by body blows rather than being knocked out by a single punch. Over time, equipment is exposed to these lower-level power disturbances. Internal components are weakened, until one day they fail. When this failure occurs early in its service life, it is classified as premature end of life.”
The final category Luciani says—and it is one that notes that everyone has experienced—is unexplained Lockups. The equipment is not damaged, but it is put in a state of confusion and requires a reboot to get unlocked.
All three of these failure categories are directly affected by electrical power disturbances he emphasizes.
Integrators Have the ‘Power’ to Provide Protection for Clients’ Electronics Systems
With all the products available to dealers in the power protection/power conditioning category, Paschke stresses that integrators must take a measured approach when choosing products. He continues by noting that when looking at research conducted at the academic level, Paschke says a change of focus is necessary when examining the topic of power quality.
“It’s not just about surges. As it turns out, it was never only about surges. A great deal of the problems we encountered in the past and still encounter in today’s smart-home environment are the direct result of poor power quality,” Paschke points out.
“Not only from a theoretical perspective, but from real-world experience, we have found that using high-quality, precision voltage regulation to power equipment in today’s smart homes makes a very real, positive impact. An analogy to this is water quality in a home. Our water tastes bad, and the water utility is not going to do anything about it. To their standards it is OK. So, if we want to improve water quality, we install water filtration. It’s the same with power quality. If we want to improve power quality, we must take matters into our own hands.”
Apex Technologies’ solution according to Luciani is to utilize voltage regulation and double conversion/online UPS-based products. Using uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) enable integrators to employ components that effectively regenerate power onsite he says.
Outlining the process of regenerating power, Luciani compares the concept to purifying water.
“This technology takes the incoming AC, converts it into DC, then electronically regenerates a pure AC sine wave fulltime,” comments Luciani. “It is somewhat analogous to distilling water to purify it. Water is converted to steam, then condensed back into pure H20. These UPSs accept input AC voltages in a wide range of up to -30% to +20% and provide stable output voltage of 120V/60Hz +/-1% with less than 2% THD. While this technology does supply short term backup power when there is a grid failure, we are really using this product for its precision voltage regulation capabilities.”
When considering the choice of power products, Luciani recommends that integrators employ a multi-layered approach to power. The first line of defense using this approach should be permanent surge protection. Luciani states that whole-house surge protection is now a part of the National Electric Code (NEC), but he emphasizes, whole-house protection should only be viewed as a starting point.
“Integrators should also use permanent, point-of-use surge protection devices such as Series Mode surge technology. I don’t like Metal Oxide Varistor [MOV] based devices because they give a false sense of security,” he suggests. “They sacrifice themselves to protect the equipment, but often you don’t know when they have died, leaving your equipment unprotected. Also, remember that comprehensive surge protection also includes protecting other wiring in your system, not just power wiring. Any wires [speakers, control, or network] that are routed outside need to be protected.”
The second layer to Apex Technologies’ recommended multi-layered approach he continues is to use voltage regulation. This is where the double conversion/online UPS comes into play he says. These solutions are available in large capacity floor standing models with ratings at 10kVA/kW for example. These products are hardwired before a breaker panel by an electrician. There are also rack mounted models that can be plugged in to 15A, 20A, or 30A circuits by integrators.
Luciani advises integrators to stay away from line interactive types of UPS products because their performance beyond the voltage regulation claims can be slow, which allows transient voltage fluctuations and distortion to pass through to connected devices.
The final layer of Apex Technologies’ approach to power protection and conditioning is isolation.
“By adding an Isolation Transformer stage after the voltage-regulation stage, down-stream electronics are completely de-coupled from any possible noise generated by up-stream equipment,” says Luciani. “Not only is the neutral wire completely disconnected from the rest of the house, a new neutral-ground bond is established near the equipment. Eliminating noise and voltage between neutral and ground not only lowers the noise floor in the system, but also reduces lockups in sensitive electronics.”
An additional suggestion from Luciani involves the use of IP controllable power distribution units (PDUs). Luciani admits the need for IP controllable PDUs aren’t as great for those utilizing Apex Technologies’ recommended multi-layered approach, but he says it is a recommended practice to have the ability to remotely reboot a device regardless of whether the client has experienced a power-related issue or not.
Sifting Through the Marketing Hype
Luciani, Paschke and the rest of the Apex Technologies team recognize that currently there is little guidance available to integrators to help them choose the proper power products for their installations.
According to Luciani, many electricians follow minimum NEC guidelines, which he says can be in some cases the source of some power disturbances. UL, he states, concentrates on electrical product safety, but neither organization directly addresses point-of-use power quality. For the time being Luciani advises that both integrators and electricians follow NEC guidelines and use UL-approved solutions.
Focusing on the science of power, Apex Technologies, and its team state that it is important for integrators to remember that UPS products are designed as short-term backup power solutions.
“While today we are using double conversion UPSs as voltage regulators, we should not consider them on their own as a true secondary power source,” says Luciani.
“When you look at the list of power disturbances, power outage is a defined category. Therefore, including a secondary power source as part of the power infrastructure is becoming a necessity. While incorporating double conversion UPSs into systems does provide a voltage regulating benefit, most UPSs internal battery capabilities limit their use as a sustained secondary source. Most UPSs up-time on internal batteries at full load is between 3 to 5 minutes. That is more than enough to span between when grid power goes off and a secondary source comes on, but not enough time to be considered as a true secondary power source unless high-capacity external battery cabinets are utilized.”
One scenario that Paschke points out is a situation in which just because a secondary power source has been specified, it does not mean the power system has addressed all possible power quality problems.
“We often hear ‘I have a generator in this project, so I’m covered.’ But the reality is that if you have a generator, that is when you really need a voltage regulating UPS. Generators do a great job of providing long-term raw backup power—if there is a consistent fuel supply—but they have multiple drawbacks,” says Paschke.
“First, it takes an appreciable amount of time for the generator to sense the grid is down, to turn on, and come up to speed before transitioning. We all know that a 15 to 30 second power outage does not sound like a big deal, but in today’s smart homes, an outage of even two seconds means rebooting the entire system which can cause headaches and service calls. Even voltage dropouts of four milliseconds can cause some electronics to lockup.
“Secondly, generators are notorious for producing very poor power quality. Their outputs vary in amplitude/frequency and contain high amounts of THD [total harmonic distortion]. The use of voltage regulating, double conversion/online UPSs with either internal or external isolation transformers in systems that employ a generator, not only cleans up grid power, they also seamlessly provide energy during transitions to-and-from the generator, while cleaning up the power provided by the generator.
“UPSs provide the same benefit when teamed up with other secondary power sources such as whole house battery systems. Connected equipment only sees near-perfect power with little variation in amplitude or frequency, low harmonic distortion, and no dropouts during transitions. It is really an ideal solution.”
Diving deeper into specific products within the home that truly benefit from UPS solutions Luciani points out that any component that utilizes a microprocessor or has specific performance goals, such LED lighting systems will benefit from the use of higher quality power.
Luciani admits that traditionally, UPS products have been used to protect and bolster home AV components, including high-value home theater systems, but Apex Technologies is now seeing integrators deploy UPS products to support their customers’ investments in advanced lighting systems. Moreover, he continues, that as smart homes continue to grow in popularity, integrators are becoming more sophisticated in how they use products such as UPS components.
“Our integrator partners have also placed Voltage Regulating UPSs on wine cellars, high-end kitchen appliances, elevators, motorized shade systems, and even aquariums, in addition to using UPSs to protect the electronics they provide,” he points out. “Part of the value-add that Jimmy and I provide is to work with Integrators on a power infrastructure plan. In many cases, more than one Voltage Regulating UPS is utilized on a project. There may be one or two UPSs for AV/IT, others for lighting, and additional units for other high-worth electronics important to the client. The most we have installed in a single home is seven units.”
Summing up the benefits of clean power succinctly, Paschke adds that clean power allows products and systems to perform at their full potential.
“When powered by a clean, stable source, electronic equipment will perform to its maximum capabilities, for its expected lifespan, and with fewer lockups and lowered service burden to the Integrator,” underscores Paschke. “This is not just a theoretical statement, but it has been experienced by many Integrators who have adopted this multi-layered approach to power infrastructure.”
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!