Power Cables Under Raised Data Center Floor

hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
I haven't done a data center in a while. Under floor potentially to be used as air plenum. Equipment or Data Cabinets on the floor require up to 50-amp DC power. Client did a facility in the UK with a bus duct under floor, plug-in pin and sleeve receptacles for power to each cabinet. Created a power whip to plug into receptacle, and hard wire to cabinet. Something doesn't seem right with that. Is this a permitted connection by the NEC? Seems like cable from the cabinet should be some kind manufactured assembly. Also, what should be insulation type on this cord in a plenum.
 

suemarkp

Senior Member
Location
Kent, WA
Occupation
Retired Engineer
This is a can or worms and you probably need to consult with your AHJ to see what they allow. If you build the data center to NEC 645 specifications, you get some allowances. But most architects don't want all the hassles in a 645 area so they don't do it. Even if it is 645 compliant, they allow type DP cords on the equipment, but I have never seen a computer PDU cord with a type DP cord.

In our area, they allowed holes/notches/Vees in the floor tiles and a power box mounted under the tile right next to that cutout. Some would say this violates cords penetrating through floors and don't allow it. Next step after that is floor boxes which are quite expensive. These would be on FMC whips to a J box on the concrete floor. J boxes could be fed from a wireway but we just used conduits back to a big distribution box at the UPS/PDU. Repeated lifting of those tiles to pull cables or do other work (security inspections, smoke detector testing) tended to damage the FMC whips. LFMC is a little stronger, and even some of those split, but you need to be sure it has a plenum jacket which is harder to find.

I finally gave up and tended to have an overhead rack installed. Power receptacles would be under the top of the rack and a cable tray above it for network and other interfacing cables. Cords are fine above the floor, but not under. Don't know if the fire knows any difference in a data center that is unmanned most of the time.... Underfloor space could be used for interface cables, but most are not plenum (network cables are about the only easy ones to find as plenum). So your nice raised floor is mostly useless except for convenient HVAC distribution.
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
This is a can or worms and you probably need to consult with your AHJ to see what they allow. If you build the data center to NEC 645 specifications, you get some allowances. But most architects don't want all the hassles in a 645 area so they don't do it. Even if it is 645 compliant, they allow type DP cords on the equipment, but I have never seen a computer PDU cord with a type DP cord.

In our area, they allowed holes/notches/Vees in the floor tiles and a power box mounted under the tile right next to that cutout. Some would say this violates cords penetrating through floors and don't allow it. Next step after that is floor boxes which are quite expensive. These would be on FMC whips to a J box on the concrete floor. J boxes could be fed from a wireway but we just used conduits back to a big distribution box at the UPS/PDU. Repeated lifting of those tiles to pull cables or do other work (security inspections, smoke detector testing) tended to damage the FMC whips. LFMC is a little stronger, and even some of those split, but you need to be sure it has a plenum jacket which is harder to find.

I finally gave up and tended to have an overhead rack installed. Power receptacles would be under the top of the rack and a cable tray above it for network and other interfacing cables. Cords are fine above the floor, but not under. Don't know if the fire knows any difference in a data center that is unmanned most of the time.... Underfloor space could be used for interface cables, but most are not plenum (network cables are about the only easy ones to find as plenum). So your nice raised floor is mostly useless except for convenient HVAC distribution.
That’s seems to be what everyone is going to. In the old days they would hardwire the equipment with sealtite, there was already a hole cut out in the floor for cooling the equipment. Last one I done, they didn’t even bother with a raised floor, it was just a slab with cable tray above the equipment. Power consumption has dropped so much now, the circuits were seldom over 30 amps.
 

hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
This is a can or worms and you probably need to consult with your AHJ to see what they allow. If you build the data center to NEC 645 specifications, you get some allowances. But most architects don't want all the hassles in a 645 area so they don't do it. Even if it is 645 compliant, they allow type DP cords on the equipment, but I have never seen a computer PDU cord with a type DP cord.

In our area, they allowed holes/notches/Vees in the floor tiles and a power box mounted under the tile right next to that cutout. Some would say this violates cords penetrating through floors and don't allow it. Next step after that is floor boxes which are quite expensive. These would be on FMC whips to a J box on the concrete floor. J boxes could be fed from a wireway but we just used conduits back to a big distribution box at the UPS/PDU. Repeated lifting of those tiles to pull cables or do other work (security inspections, smoke detector testing) tended to damage the FMC whips. LFMC is a little stronger, and even some of those split, but you need to be sure it has a plenum jacket which is harder to find.

I finally gave up and tended to have an overhead rack installed. Power receptacles would be under the top of the rack and a cable tray above it for network and other interfacing cables. Cords are fine above the floor, but not under. Don't know if the fire knows any difference in a data center that is unmanned most of the time.... Underfloor space could be used for interface cables, but most are not plenum (network cables are about the only easy ones to find as plenum). So your nice raised floor is mostly useless except for convenient HVAC distribution.
Thanks. I tried to get the client to consider overhead power. They are insisting on going old school on power under the floor. Overhead is much cleaner and less likely to cause trouble and way more accessible.
 

hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
Yes, they a distributing DC power to these test cabinets. This is a customized cabinet build for DC power. Not sure what is being tested. We are in the dark as to what exactly is in the cabinet but they want a DC power distribution to serve main power to the cabinets.
 
What's the voltage? The rules for 48v are a lot different than 240v.
How much current total and where is the source? Distance and voltage drop generally matter more for DC.
Are P & S sleeve connectors rated for DC? Maybe, but probably not for load-break applications. (Not going to look this up right now.)
 
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