[AusNOG] Electrical Safety in Data Centres

[John Lindsay]

On upon a time RCDs weren’t required for sockets at 20 amp and up.

That rule appears to have changed.

By rule I mean interpretation of the standard.

I saw some three phase EV charging points being installed recently and the electrician said that “new rules” required him to install RCDs in line with them. That’s mildly amusing because the charging units themselves have much better RCD function than the clunky and expensive electromechanical units he was installing. 

BTW, you would only see current in that separate earth connection if the earthing at the sub board and main board were to fail because the path to “ground” would likely be much low resistance via the neutral block in the main board.

Cheers,

jsl

John Lindsay
johnslindsay at mac.com
+61403577711

> On 21 Jun 2016, at 7:01 PM, Greg <mclennan at internode.on.net> wrote:
> 
> 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.
>> _______________________________________________
>> AusNOG mailing list
>> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
>> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog