Case Study: Mount Washington Observatory achieves 100% uptime with Eaton UPS and monitoring solutions

Maintaining uptime, even in the world’s worst weather

Mount Washington Observatory, a private scientific and educational institution atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, needed a highly reliable way to keep its weather and research operations running despite some of the world’s harshest conditions. Because the summit is prone to lightning, ice, snow, hurricane-force winds, and unreliable power access, the observatory had to protect its 24/7 data collection and IT infrastructure. Eaton provided the Eaton 9355 UPS, along with service, eNotify, and an environmental monitoring probe.

Eaton implemented a 15 kVA Eaton 9355 UPS with battery replacement and a two-year service plan, plus real-time monitoring and environmental alerts. After a site assessment, Eaton reduced the runtime requirement from 170 minutes to 90 minutes, and removed 32 trays of batteries and two cabinets, consolidating about 3,840 pounds of equipment. As a result, Mount Washington Observatory achieved 100 percent uptime, protected critical systems, preserved its 80-year continuous weather history, and gained faster visibility into UPS and room conditions through Eaton’s monitoring services.

Mount Washington Observatory

Cyrena-Marie Briedé

Director of Summit Operations