[AusNOG] Electrical Safety in Data Centres

[Greg]

In a small (24 rack area) I look after. We have no RCD's inline  for our 
under floor 20/32Amp rack-power sockets. However I separately earth each 
rack to a common earth  that all runs to a separate large earth stake 
that runs outside the facility to help mitigate a 'live' rack incident. 
On reflection of that setup, I suspect I could add in a current 
detection device to that separate earth to make me aware that one of the 
racks got an issue since there is no RCD..

Cheers
Greg



On 21/06/2016 6:59 PM, Brad Peczka wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> For those on list who run data centres, either in house or as a commercial operation like NextDC/Metronode - can anyone shed some light on the requirements (or lack thereof) for RCD protection within a Data Centre?
>
> My experience in the past has been that, where PDUs are connected via 32A sockets or similar, RCDs are not required. That being said, an interesting presentation a few years back from the folks at CITEC (http://www.server-racks-australia.com.au/News_articles/Residual%20Current%20Protection%20in%20the%20Data%20Centre%20DM.pdf) would seem to indicate that this is not the case, and that their interpretation of AS3000:2007 requires RCDs to be fitted to or upstream from PDUs. The installation of emergency stops for facility power also seems to be very hit and miss, and varies depending on when/where and who.
>
> I'm curious to know if this is a common view and, if not, how others are handling electrical safety within Data Centres/Comms Rooms/Server Rooms.
>
> Regards,
> -Brad.
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