aleg
Member
- Location
- Los Angeles County, California, USA
I'm having an issue at one site where a building engineer is demanding removal of power strips from all UPS units. I'm totally on-board with this, as the cheap plastic power strips are:
The existing UPS units are 2200VA, 3000VA, 5000VA. We can read the power usage from the network gear...nowhere near loading it up. The UPS are running at less than 50% capacity. The runtime is only to carry the load until the site generators kick in, usually within a few seconds.
I'm proposing buying APC or TrippLite rack-mount PDUs that are rated for the network and server equipment, up to 15A and 20A.
The problem is, the site engineer is claiming that this is "daisy chaining" of a power strip off of the UPS. He made reference to a recent inspection, but I reviewed the official documents post-inspection, and the only dings for IT equipment were in general office areas, with 1 instance of an extension cord being used, and 1 instance of two power strips being daisy-chained. No mention of the racked up equipment.
The PDU manufacturers recommend connection to:
The site will incur many thousands of dollars to buy additional local UPS units with enough receptacles to accommodate all equipment to be directly plugged in.
In addition, there will be the labor and materials for additional breakers, conduit, and receptacle installation for these new UPS units to connect to the e-power panels that are generator-backed.
Am I supported by an "ITE" designation, like UL 60950? Unfortunately, I don't have access to UL.com or the publications.
The NEC citation I've seen for daisy-chaining is for RPTs. A UPS unit isn't an RPT. The PDU _might_ be considered an RPT by people not working in IT.
But, every server room and datacenter uses PDUs to distribute power from a remote UPS to closer to the actual equipment. Otherwise, we'd have to have twice as many UPS units, and 15-20-foot power cords for all of the equipment to reach the UPS without extensions.
A little help here? At this point, the local I.T. staff is giving up to the stubborn engineer. Seems like a huge waste of money and wiring when $100-200 PDUs can do the job.
Sorry for the long post.
- not durable
- aren't supposed to be mounted (RPTs)
- predictably handle the loads -- they're all wired differently depending on the OEM and the price of the device. I've seen some with 14AWG that shouldn't carry more than 10A, but are crammed full of plugs.
The existing UPS units are 2200VA, 3000VA, 5000VA. We can read the power usage from the network gear...nowhere near loading it up. The UPS are running at less than 50% capacity. The runtime is only to carry the load until the site generators kick in, usually within a few seconds.
I'm proposing buying APC or TrippLite rack-mount PDUs that are rated for the network and server equipment, up to 15A and 20A.
The problem is, the site engineer is claiming that this is "daisy chaining" of a power strip off of the UPS. He made reference to a recent inspection, but I reviewed the official documents post-inspection, and the only dings for IT equipment were in general office areas, with 1 instance of an extension cord being used, and 1 instance of two power strips being daisy-chained. No mention of the racked up equipment.
The PDU manufacturers recommend connection to:
- a battery protected circuit (centralized UPS with hardwired receptacles at each rack)
- a local UPS receptacle
- direct to mains power (only some models)
The site will incur many thousands of dollars to buy additional local UPS units with enough receptacles to accommodate all equipment to be directly plugged in.
In addition, there will be the labor and materials for additional breakers, conduit, and receptacle installation for these new UPS units to connect to the e-power panels that are generator-backed.
Am I supported by an "ITE" designation, like UL 60950? Unfortunately, I don't have access to UL.com or the publications.
The NEC citation I've seen for daisy-chaining is for RPTs. A UPS unit isn't an RPT. The PDU _might_ be considered an RPT by people not working in IT.
But, every server room and datacenter uses PDUs to distribute power from a remote UPS to closer to the actual equipment. Otherwise, we'd have to have twice as many UPS units, and 15-20-foot power cords for all of the equipment to reach the UPS without extensions.
A little help here? At this point, the local I.T. staff is giving up to the stubborn engineer. Seems like a huge waste of money and wiring when $100-200 PDUs can do the job.
Sorry for the long post.