At 10:36 AM 3/18/2007, Robert G. Brown wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2007, Jim Lux wrote:
There's a huge "small office and retail" sort of market for
middling sized UPSes, and APC and the like would like to sell into
that market as a "plug and play" product. Also, this is where the
local AHJ can play a role. THEY can say, we don't care if your
installation isn't in a room that meets ALL of the requirements of
645, we want you to provide a disconnecting means anyway.
I could wish that they made this a whole lot simpler. And perhaps
standardized so it would be cheap as well as easy.
The whole "multiple sources of power" thing is becoming a more
noticeable issue. Consider, for instance, a building with an array
of solar panels.. electrically live all the time! The code has had a
series of revisions over the past few years to keep up with this.
Standby and portable generators are another area of some changes in
the recent codes, especially with respect to grounding and "neutral"
and what kinds of transfer switches.
There's a sort of tension between the factions that come up with
unlikely scenarios and the factions that don't want to require
excessive (in a cost/benefit sense) and expensive remedies for
unlikely events, and through such tension we get to the code we've got.
Usually, you need some particularly egregious event to catalyze a
substantial change (The MGM Grand fire was one such event. The very
wide use of portable generators after hurricanes was another.)
There's also a (very wise in most cases) tendency to not impose code
requirements on situations where everything is under the control of a
single person, including both execution and consequences.. i.e. if
you want to electrocute yourself on your 10 acre farm, that's your
own business. But, if you have 50 employees, you'd better make sure
they're safe.
I would like to see a more consistent and integrated way to handle
the sorts of issues you bring up with UPSes and the like. But to a
certain extent, we're faced with the classic beowulf dilemma
(clusters, not nordic heros)... you want to leverage off consumer
gear, which by and large is not intended to operate in an industrial
setting (either in terms of environment, maintainability and
reliability, FCC Part 15, or anything else). What's perfectly ok for
a consumer to have sitting in their living room in qty 1 may not be
ok in a wiring closet with qty 50.
Hmm... you know, of course, that plugging one plug strip into another
one is strictly forbidden? And there's a reason that the cords on
most plug strips are only 6 ft long? That's driven by the "expected
usage" which in turn defines the "credible scenarios" which in turn
defines the "required risk mitigations" which in turn defines "who
loses in a lawsuit if there's a fire"
Of course, it's a bit unrealistic to expect the guy or gal in the
orange or blue vest at the big-box store to know all these things and
advise the clamoring hordes of customers accordingly.
And, that white paper from APC (which, by the way, has a revised
version for 2005 that talks more about the risks of deliberate EPOing
as sabotage) is pretty short on practical details, while it's great
at showing drawings of buttons.
I'm going to try to figure out how to put an EPO in this room for less
than a fortune, even though I'm pretty sure that it isn't strictly
required. Even if it is just one that controls the UPS's -- so that
the building power can be cut externally and one can bop off the UPS's
on entering the room.
The building power is tricky enough as it is -- they have a gas
generator that kicks in transparently on loss of grid power (it's a
medical clinic). That is not my thing, though.
rgb
--
Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875
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