For a time we had -48V DC running around our DC.... it was shortly after the networking group was annexed by the telecom group and the telecom group was having them replace everything with Extreme switches (because Cisco switches don't do VoIP, and Extreme is an Avaya partner -- our phone switch.)
They didn't UPS the AC leg of the networking equipment, because the DC is always available. Until one day there were was a power outage, and the DC failed (before the generator started.) They tracked down the battery room, and found a room filled with bulging/cracked batteries ready to explode.... Another time, our generator failed to start.... they weren't taking care of its battery either. Not sure where all that copper went. Meanwhile...supposedly there's some kind of limit on how much lead acid we can have in the room, and they say the new APC racks might require us to get rid of the silcon's (which provide UPS power to our SAN/NAS systems....was originally for the mainframe. They also want to get rid of the liebert room AC units, since everything will be moving into the APC racks....except for the SAN.) Of course, when we got the new SAN....they originally only hooked one leg of it to a UPS. It would call home everytime the power flickered or sagged, requiring an FE to come out and reset the alarm. Didn't become a problem until we were having UPS maintenance being done.... ----- Original Message ----- > On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 08:31:33PM -0500, Singer X.J. Wang spake > thusly: > > I thought of the same thing and the answer is its a chicken and egg > > problem. No > > data center is going completely -48V DC unless all the equipment is > > available > > in that power voltage (otherwise they have to run both). And at the > > same time > > no major manufacturer will make it in large amounts (so that the > > cost is > > reasonable) unless there's large demand. > > They don't even have to build the whole datacenter -48V DC. They > could setup a > PDU to power a particular row of racks or area. But they don't. > Apparently > because they would never sell it even if they had it. I, too, have > been > pondering 208v power. Electricity is my managed hosting operation's > biggest > single expense. I'm not sure how the datacenter's power distribution > system > works but they currently have to run me 4 20A per rack. Coudldn't > they cut that > approximately in half (power factor correction etc, as mentioned > earlier) if I > ran 208v? Seems like that would be cheaper for them. I haven't even > talked to > them about pricing but now I want to talk to them and see what their > deal is. > _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
