Step up vs. Step down

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colatm

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I’m in the US and have a 208v 3 phase WYE feed. I’ve been in contact with the power company and zoning about getting a 277/480 feed and using a transformer to step down to 240/415v for equipment requirements. I’ll need about 600 amps today and up to 1,000 amps in a year or so. Although it CAN be done it’s going to be a pain in the rear and require a lot of bureaucracy, time and money. The other option is to bypass all the above and feed the 208v 3 phase into a 277/415v step up transformer. Both transformers ( up and down) output 240v. Now, I’m a simple thinker and to my simple mind I’m thinking of the weakest link in a chain. Do I lose the efficiency of the 240/415v because it’s running off the 208v? Am I basically just buying a step up transformer (at more than double the cost of a step down) to get the voltage I need and sacrificing the efficiency that comes with 277/480v to 240/415v?
Thanks!
 
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Welcome to the forum.

Yes, in my opinion. In an all-other-things-being-equal world, higher voltage is better.

More "efficient". Voltage drop is less of an issue. Insulation is cheaper than conductor.

Some parts may cost more if you jump into a higher voltage class of equipment, though.

It would be a bonus if you can keep the existing service for existing and new 120 & 208v loads.
 
This sounds like a crypto mining application. First thought is express things in KVA. Then do the calcs. This kind of load requires close coordination with the POCO. There are lots of options. What is your load in KVA?
 
texie said:
This sounds like a crypto mining application. First thought is express things in KVA. Then do the calcs. This kind of load requires close coordination with the POCO. There are lots of options. What is your load in KVA?
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Buying electricity to convert it back into money is such a weird concept. Apparently if you buy enough of it you can turn a profit, but it seems like a colossal waste of resources to me.
 
electrofelon said:
But really is it any different than a fiat currency such as the Dollar?
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I suppose in one sense they are similar in that neither one is backed by, say, shiny rocks we dig out of the ground. But in practice it is vastly different. In terms of the number of things you can do with US dollars, such as paying for chewing gum at the corner store, or paying your taxes. Cryptocurrency is more like the shiny rocks, although less useful.

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
I wouldn't call it money. Rather it's an arcane token that some people are apparently currently willing to trade real money for.

Cheers, Wayne
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But the overall process is still money in and money out. If you can turn a $0.0000001 profit (or whatever) per kWh profit, all you have to do is buy 10 million kWh and convert it to heat to make a dollar. Why is this not a monumentally irresponsible waste of resources? Why even bother with computers? You might as well just run the energy through a big resistor.
 
We have a small server farm that currently runs about 100 machines. We’re moving to a larger place with expectations of adding about 100 more servers fairly quickly and have capacity for about 600 more. The idea is that we would like to get the power right before we start moving in equipment. I’ve had three electricians come out to quote the job and they’re all happy to do so but none can answer that question for me.
Thank you all for the replies.
 
We have a small server farm that currently runs about 100 machines. We’re moving to a larger place with expectations of adding about 100 more servers fairly quickly and have capacity for about 600 more. The idea is that we would like to get the power right before we start moving in equipment. I’ve had three electricians come out to quote the job and they’re all happy to do so but none can answer that question for me. One resource of the information on this can be found at https://www.missioncriticalmagazine...ome/Files/PDFs/Emerson-Proper_Application.pdf
Thank you all for the replies
 
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