Looking for advice on datacenter electrical/generator

Thu Apr 3 01:43:44 UTC 2003

I don't know what policy is like in the USA, but before a fire crew even
breathes here in Toronto, they shut off the gas.  Not to mention that in the
event of any political disaster, the supply of natural gas just cannot be
guaranteed.

Although it took a lot of begging, we were able to put a 200KW diesel on top
of our wooden building.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

On the topic of batteries, our rule of thumb has been to have enough
batteries around to cover a situation in which the genset does not start.
That most likely will happen when nobody is paying attention and everybody
competant is drunk at an office party.  Even if you have a maintenance
contract on the genset with a 1 hour response time, odds are that something
is screwed up where the service guy will need a part that is somewhere else,
etc. etc.

Do a risk./benefit analysis.  There is a point you reach where the cost of
redundancy outweighs the cost of downtime.

Dan.

Alex Rubenstein wrote:

> > > He also is strongly opposed to us purchasing a natural gas generator
> > > which seemed like a shoe-in for us.
>
> We currently have a 133 kwatt nat gas genset. It has performed flawlessly
> -- they work well.
>
> The point of the marshall shutting of gas is a valid one, but I've not run
> across that. Also, if you are in a situation that the fire marshall need
> sto shut of nat gas, it may be a moot issue.
>
> -- Alex Rubenstein, AR97, K2AHR, alex at nac.net, latency, Al Reuben --
> --    Net Access Corporation, 800-NET-ME-36, http://www.nac.net   --