Information Technology Rooms

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Zifkwong

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If a 15 kVA UPS is not installed in an Information Technology Equipment Room is the disconnecting means mentioned in 645.11 required?

What constitutes an Information Technology Room? If a room that has brand new servers, limited access, no raised floor, no fire wall, and a separate HVAC system.

In other words, I have a room with a 15 kVA and a 5 kVA UPS installed in a room with approximately 20 servers. The room is not using any of the "conveniences" of article 645, I would like to know if the disconnecting means for the UPS is required.

Thanks.
 
If you are not using the conveniences of 645, it is not a info. technology room, and the disconnect is not needed.

I may be wrong, but I think all the "conveniences" deal with wiring under the raised floor. So by default, if there is no raised floor, it doesn't have to be called a IT room, and the disconnect is not required. Does anyone agree or disagree?

Steve
 
We have a computer room with a raised floor, and a 30 kVA UPS in another part of the building supplying loads in the computer room. There is a 12-pole QOB load center in the room, with main lugs. I put an EPO mushroom in the room and a size 2 contactor in line with the feeders between the computer room and the UPS.

My thinking was that I needed to provide a means of removing power to the room without necessarily killing the UPS, which supplies other loads.

My interpretation only...

Dan
 
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steve66 said:
If you are not using the conveniences of 645, it is not a info. technology room, and the disconnect is not needed.

I may be wrong, but I think all the "conveniences" deal with wiring under the raised floor. So by default, if there is no raised floor, it doesn't have to be called a IT room, and the disconnect is not required. Does anyone agree or disagree?

Steve
Click to expand...

I have a hard time believing someone built a server room with the controlled access door(s), separate HVAC, put in a pair of UPSes, etc. and didn't meet the fire wall, ceilings and protected opening requirements. If I were in his shoes, I'd go back and ask the question again about the fire wall requirements being satisfied.

In re, raised floors -- raised floors aren't required for an IT equipment room. They are very convenient and make life easy when it comes to reconfiguring the space, but they aren't a requirement. They are also spendy to set up in the first place, and people who work in them have a way of messing things up under the floors. I'd take pictures of the area under my labs' floors, but then I'd get fired.

That said, he should provide one anyway and I can't believe articles 700 and 701, which are only two other places I've found UPSes mentioned, limit themselves to legally required emergency power.
 
Tall,
Article 645 is an optional article. There is no requirement to use it. The only time you need to use that article is where you are taking advantage of some of installation practices that are not normally permitted. If you don't comply with all of 645.4, then you just use standard wiring methods and the installation is code compliant. Many IT designers stay away from 645 because the do not want the "single point of failure" that is required when you have the Article 645 emergency disconnect.
Don
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Tall,
Article 645 is an optional article. There is no requirement to use it. The only time you need to use that article is where you are taking advantage of some of installation practices that are not normally permitted. If you don't comply with all of 645.4, then you just use standard wiring methods and the installation is code compliant. Many IT designers stay away from 645 because the do not want the "single point of failure" that is required when you have the Article 645 emergency disconnect.
Don
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Don, I understand that. I, personally, am queer for EPOs. In years past I made it a point to show up on Thanksgiving Day and give any of them in any of my labs a good thwack. I derived a perverse sense of joy at doing so.

That said, I'm always unnerved when I hit an EPO and find that something, somewhere, is still running on a UPS.

I work around the stuff you guys build. Please think kindly of me when I'm crawling around under a raised floor.
 
iwire said:
What do you see as the purpose of an EPO?

It is not for your protection while working in the floor.
Click to expand...

Killing the power in the event of a fire or other emergency.

However, after 20 years of working in raised floor labs, I like to think that they are also there for the protection of people who are working in the floor.
 
tallgirl said:
Killing the power in the event of a fire
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I think that sums it up.

I hate EPO systems, contractors nightmare when we come into work in these rooms.

I was closing the door on a Liebert PDU when the it's shunt trip dumped, after some phone tag Liebert admitted they where having a problem with that model and would come out and repair it.

That still left a customer very upset as they where about a week into a month long test run.

In another high profile IT room a sprinkler contractor flowed water while doing testing to his surprise it tripped the EPO as the local FD forced a tie in to the buildings fire panel even though the IT had a stand alone preaction system. This trip cost the contractor tens of thousands of $.
 
I design/build IT data centers for Telco?s and we avoid 645 like the plague. Only time we would use it is if the AHJ insist. That has only happened twice, once in King of Prussia, and the other in San Jose. With that said extensions to these two sites were standard methods as we eventually won in court, the EPO?s were disabled.
 
What I like about EPOs is if Something Really Bad happens I'd don't have to figure out anything more than where is the big red button.

The raised floors I work in are wired mostly with 30 or 40 foot lengths of flex into quad boxes. They are 10 or 15 or 20 years old and have been molested by all sorts of people moving all sorts of equipment in and out. And over time, y'alls nice pretty work starts to wear. Some people care, some don't, and if someone didn't notice and something bad happens, I'm going to find that big red switch and whack it. I call maintenance if I find something loose or broken, but some people don't know what "loose or broken" looks like, or else they don't care.
 
tallgirl said:
What I like about EPOs is if Something Really Bad happens I'd don't have to figure out anything more than where is the big red button.
Click to expand...

And that would be what?

I just don't see 'really bad' things happening. When, and if they do, I find it highly unlikely that the EPO is either used or saves the day.

I think it's a "Tim Allen" thing. 'Grunt Grunt Grunt'

EPOs add a sense of danger and power to an IT room. :D

The big red button just looks so cool on the wall that every office should have one. ;)
 
Thank you all for your insightful comments. I am glad to know that there are other people out there that dislike EPO's.

Moving forward I am not going to install one in the room that I was referring to.
 
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