Data Center Power Design for CryptoCurrency Mining Farms

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StarCat

StarCat

Industrial Engineering Tech
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Moab, UT USA
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Imdustrial Engineering Technician - HVACR Electrical and Mechanical Systems
I read a very good article on this topic a few months back which I have misplaced and have to find again. The last thing I had was 415-240 3PH WYE.
I would welcome any input on this matter to begin the discussion of the tenets. I seem to recall there are some trends involving the PDU and UPS systems that are running on higher voltages than in the past, but the usage PSU limitations of most ASIC mining devices are 240V input. I have a bit more intel to arrange. Any input is helpful. The Crypto Mine is a variant and not a traditional design for typical data center.
 
Yeah this has come up on the this forum several times. I think the primary issue that will come up is for those utilities, which is probably most of them, that won't supply this voltage as they would consider it a non-standard, so you would have to transform the voltage yourself. Maybe autos would be the best way to do this in that case?
 
I think the intent is to make IT and video equipment work on "normal" circuits in Europe, US, and Asia. So it needs to be able to deal with 120V, 208V, 240V, and 50 hz and 60 hz. Most servers draw a few amps at 208V unless they are chock full of RAM and disk drives or multiple graphics cards. The power supplies tend to be oversized for longevity not because the server needs that much power. Bitcoin miners may suck a little more, but the PDUs are much of the problem.

Standard 208V PDUs with a 3 phase 50A or 60A plug would at least help. Common PDUs tend to stop at L6-30 or L21-30. The few larger ones I've seen use different plugs. Asking for machines to be able to take 277V is a bridge too far I think.
 
suemarkp said:
I think the intent is to make IT and video equipment work on "normal" circuits in Europe, US, and Asia. So it needs to be able to deal with 120V, 208V, 240V, and 50 hz and 60 hz. Most servers draw a few amps at 208V unless they are chock full of RAM and disk drives or multiple graphics cards. The power supplies tend to be oversized for longevity not because the server needs that much power. Bitcoin miners may suck a little more, but the PDUs are much of the problem.

Standard 208V PDUs with a 3 phase 50A or 60A plug would at least help. Common PDUs tend to stop at L6-30 or L21-30. The few larger ones I've seen use different plugs. Asking for machines to be able to take 277V is a bridge too far I think.
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As see it 277 is a rare voltage. Made even more so with Canada at 347 volts. Equipment made for such would be a nitch market, one not worth the investment vs return for global manufacturers imho.
 
416/240V wye is common in data centers for efficient power transmission to the server as well as efficient operation of the power supply (most operate more efficiently at 240V). Biggest issue is short circuit ratings of equipment.
 
Most of the MFG. of mining ASIC machines comes out of China, and from an outfit called Bitmain. Their PSU input stops at 240V.. So we are talking a lot of racks with 240V power points. As an example the S19J runs at 3250W. The article I read about regular data centers suggesed they were moving towards higher voltages coming into larger UPS systems. If I can locate the article I will post it.
 
ron said:
416/240V wye is common in data centers for efficient power transmission to the server as well as efficient operation of the power supply (most operate more efficiently at 240V). Biggest issue is short circuit ratings of equipment.
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why would the power supply need a SCCR at all?
 
petersonra said:
why would the power supply need a SCCR at all?
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It is the short circuit rating of related equipment is the issue. Many operations staff are used to dealing with 120/208V equipment fed from smallish PDU (power distribution unit) transformers, so they order panelboards and plugstrips with 10kA SCCR at 208V, or sometime 10kA at 416/240V but generally need other ratings at 416/240V due to larger upstream transformers.
 
ron said:
It is the short circuit rating of related equipment is the issue. Many operations staff are used to dealing with 120/208V equipment fed from smallish PDU (power distribution unit) transformers, so they order panelboards and plugstrips with 10kA SCCR at 208V, or sometime 10kA at 416/240V but generally need other ratings at 416/240V due to larger upstream transformers.
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It seems as likely many of them never even heard of SCCR and don't care. They may learn the hard way when an inspector red tags them.
 
So I have not laid hands on any of these 415V systems as yet, but its likely I will. ON these installations where you also need to power 120V loads, would you think they power another smaller transformer from the 415v main distribution? I am trying to get a concept ot the total facility with respect to panels and loads.I have never worked on any 415-3 HVAC gear, but apparently it can be gotten.
 
StarCat said:
So I have not laid hands on any of these 415V systems as yet, but its likely I will. ON these installations where you also need to power 120V loads, would you think they power another smaller transformer from the 415v main distribution? I am trying to get a concept ot the total facility with respect to panels and loads.I have never worked on any 415-3 HVAC gear, but apparently it can be gotten.
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If there are UPS's, there is usually a 480V service to serve HVAC and UPS's then transformers to step down to 416/240V and 120/208V.
 
I'd expect that in any environment where 415/240y is widely provided, it's the most-used source and 120v equipment would be both rare and probably not in need of protected power. And I can't see wiring two voltages into the equipment racks unless there was a dashed good reason.

(Very little modern communications/computer/IT equipment is 120v only; my assumption is that any 120v only gear is going to be things like portable fans and task lamps, the electric screwdriver charger, and stuff like that.)
 
ron said:
If there are UPS's, there is usually a 480V service to serve HVAC and UPS's then transformers to step down to 416/240V and 120/208V.
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As 416/240Y transformers are custom, I assume it would be technically feasible to combine both transformers into one by center tapping each 240V secondary coil? But perhaps a poor idea from a reliability standpoint?

Would the 240V max power supplies typically be OK with two ungrounded supply conductors, one of which is at 277V to ground? If so, would a delta arrangement of coils as an autotransformer allow you to generate the midpoints M of the (3) L-L combinations of the 480V service, providing (6) different M-L 240V circuits?

Cheers, Wayne
 
Thanks for all responses. I am logging them amd will compare with what I find in the field and report back.
 
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