installing new UPS for my office and needs electrical work...

[hecktic]

thanks for all the information and clarification. I guess ill just focus as much funds as possible on the bigger expenses like the whole house protector and as minimal as possible on a good power strip and/or UPS. The 2 UPS units we had just simply failed while the APC held up to the task. Ironically the APC was older and more worn out than the CyberPower and Tripplelite.

Anyways Im going to start searching for a whole house protector. How many AMPS should it cover to be worthy of a server/data room?

[westom]

Anyways Im going to start searching for a whole house protector. How many AMPS should it cover to be worthy of a server/data room?

Protectors must earth direct lightning strikes that are typically 20,000 amps. So a minimally sized protector starts at 50,000 amps. That is for residential protection where power is shared by other homes. And when incoming power is limited to 200 amp service.

Protector life expectancy is ballpark measured by its current rating. Increasing a protector to 100,000 amps would exponentially increase the protector life expectancy.

A protector is also selected based upon service. For example home have single phase, split phase, or two phase electric (depending on the viewpoint of the observer). Commercial facilities may have three phase service. A 'whole house' protector is also selected by phase.

A 'whole house' protector is only secondary protection. Primary protection is provided by the utility. A picture of what should be inspected so that the primary protection system is also functional:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html

Quality of single point earth ground mostly determines how a protector works during one surge. A protector's 'amps' mostly determines its life expectancy over many surges.

[hecktic]

Protectors must earth direct lightning strikes that are typically 20,000 amps. So a minimally sized protector starts at 50,000 amps. That is for residential protection where power is shared by other homes. And when incoming power is limited to 200 amp service.

Protector life expectancy is ballpark measured by its current rating. Increasing a protector to 100,000 amps would exponentially increase the protector life expectancy.

Alright so at least 50,000 amps but 100,000 amps would be better... I will look for the highest I can get at the best price. Maybe 150,000 to 200,000 seeing as the utility company we have is the same for the rest of the block and the whole block went down for a good couple of hours so I would probably guess the primary earth protections at the pole are of bad quality or need to be updated. My guess is they may have done this now after that whole incident last week when everything on the block was down. But I have no control over the utility company.

A protector is also selected based upon service. For example home have single phase, split phase, or two phase electric (depending on the viewpoint of the observer). Commercial facilities may have three phase service. A 'whole house' protector is also selected by phase.

Ah I see, but if I may ask, what is the difference among the phases or how do they work in respect to a commercial setting like the server/data room?

And pricing I am guessing goes higher with additional phases ?

(oh and I also gotta get a whole house protector for my apartment along with a dedicated 20amp line for my new Air Conditioner unit.... its a 14,000 btu, approx 1500watt unit)

A 'whole house' protector is only secondary protection. Primary protection is provided by the utility. A picture of what should be inspected so that the primary protection system is also functional:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html

Quality of single point earth ground mostly determines how a protector works during one surge. A protector's 'amps' mostly determines its life expectancy over many surges.

yeah PG&E, our electric provider does a bad job in my area. I might have to call them up and ask them about the condition of the primary protection they have setup at the poles outside.

p.s. I appreciate your continued help and patience with me throughout this thread. I know these are probably very very basic questions and you probably dont get them a lot. But if there is anything I can do to thank you for your help, please just tell me. I am guessing you work in the electrical industry.

[westom]

... seeing as the utility company we have is the same for the rest of the block and the whole block went down for a good couple of hours so I would probably guess the primary earth protections at the pole are of bad quality or need to be updated. ...
Ah I see, but if I may ask, what is the difference among the phases or how do they work in respect to a commercial setting like the server/data room?

When power goes out, linemen typically don't look for reasons why. Their concern is to restore power ASAP. Grounds are generally (too often) handled as an afterthought. This was especially true of First Energy companies. The company that created that Aug 2003 blackout from Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, to NYC by simply violating basic procedures most everywhere. And that operated a nuclear reactor with a known potential Three Mile Island problem for many months; then discovered a hole in its containment dome.

Phases: imagine a piston that goes up and down to rotate a shaft. Now imagine three pistons located every 120 degrees around the shaft so that one piston at any time is pushing the shaft. Obviously power to rotate the shaft is more uniform when three pistons share the work. That is three phase power.

Single phase power is simply one piston pushing and pulling on the shaft to rotate it.

Electricity from generators is delivered three phase - on three wires. Peak power pulse from any one phase at any time. A three phase generator is more efficient when driving three phase motors; each phase takes turns rotating the shaft.

Homes do not need all three phases due to no big motors. So one third of homes are powered by one phase, another third by the second phase, etc. Electricity delivered to your home is a power pulse 60 times every second - one pulse every 16.6 milliseconds. But your power pulse may be 5.5 milliseconds before other houses. And their power pulse may arrive 5.5 msec before the third group.

Meanwhile, commercial buildings get pulses every 5.5 msec on three wires so that big machines can operate more efficiently. Some lights in that building are powered by the A phase. Others by the B phase. A third group by the C phase. IOW each part of the building powered just like above groups of homes are powered.

Sometimes large equipment in a data center requires three phase. Most only connects single phase.

[hecktic]

When power goes out, linemen typically don't look for reasons why. Their concern is to restore power ASAP. Grounds are generally (too often) handled as an afterthought. This was especially true of First Energy companies. The company that created that Aug 2003 blackout from Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, to NYC by simply violating basic procedures most everywhere. And that operated a nuclear reactor with a known potential Three Mile Island problem for many months; then discovered a hole in its containment dome.

Phases: imagine a piston that goes up and down to rotate a shaft. Now imagine three pistons located every 120 degrees around the shaft so that one piston at any time is pushing the shaft. Obviously power to rotate the shaft is more uniform when three pistons share the work. That is three phase power.

Single phase power is simply one piston pushing and pulling on the shaft to rotate it.

Electricity from generators is delivered three phase - on three wires. Peak power pulse from any one phase at any time. A three phase generator is more efficient when driving three phase motors; each phase takes turns rotating the shaft.

Homes do not need all three phases due to no big motors. So one third of homes are powered by one phase, another third by the second phase, etc. Electricity delivered to your home is a power pulse 60 times every second - one pulse every 16.6 milliseconds. But your power pulse may be 5.5 milliseconds before other houses. And their power pulse may arrive 5.5 msec before the third group.

Meanwhile, commercial buildings get pulses every 5.5 msec on three wires so that big machines can operate more efficiently. Some lights in that building are powered by the A phase. Others by the B phase. A third group by the C phase. IOW each part of the building powered just like above groups of homes are powered.

Sometimes large equipment in a data center requires three phase. Most only connects single phase.

Alright well its not that big of a "data center" although the power to the building and the rest of the block is considered for commercial purposes so Ill see if I can find a good three phase whole house protector. Going to try for 150,000amp protector if possible.

Also I need to get one for my apartment since I got that new AC and it requires a dedicated line (15amp but Ill get a 20amp to be safe) and I also have a new home theator system which I want to put on its own dedicated line also (20amp should be enough I think but Im not sure how I would plug everything in since the physical connector wont match the 20amp outlet plug) I think a 50,000amp whole house protector would be enough for all of this but since this is a large apartment complex building next to four others, I think Im going to try and get a 100,000amp whole house protector (will try and get a double phase if its reasonable for the price)

Do you have any idea of what the pricing SHOULD be?

Sorry, im not trying to hijack the thread.

Thats fine. The MOV discussion is relevant to my project also. Before knowing this information I was not planning on putting primary earth protection via the copper rods around the data room (esp. near the breaker box and whole house protector), but now I am going to.