Surge Protecting Power Center Switches?

[PinkFloydEffect]

I bought an "Eliminator" E107 control center for my rack, it is just 8 power switches with 8 separate outlets so you can cycle power for individual components in your rack. There is not power conditioning, or surge protection, it only has a simple breaker.

Before I purchased the power center switch panel I already had ordered a TrippLite Isobar to protect the rack. Now I am not sure what to do, the Isobar claims to have isolated outlet banks. To me this sounds like it keeps the components you have plugged in isolated from each other in event of a problem, if the source of the problem was something you have plugged in and not coming from the power source or grid it would give you a layer of protection.

Sure I could plug the power center switch panel into the Isobar using only one single outlet but I would not be utilizing the isolation feature right? I am not sure if the full capacity of the Isobars surge suppression would be utilized in this way either, having my entire rack running off a single plug on the Isobar?

Should I ditch the Isobar for another surge/conditioner that has single input and single output with no power strip built in? I am really confused on what direction to take.

 

[coxhaus]

I would not want to power cycle an entire rack on 1 power switch. It will probably draw too many amps and burn out after while.

In our computer room in the old days we had building power backup and a couple big diesel generators outside which came on for back up power. The building engineers handled all that.

We had rows of racks and none of the rack's equipment was controlled by switches. A lot of our big Cisco equipment in the racks were 220v or 200v, it has been too long since I specked that stuff. We usually traced power wires or pressed reset switches. A lot of our gear had redundant power supplies so one switch would not work. I am including both Servers, Cisco switches and routers had redundant power supplies. With redundant power supplies you want to use separate circuits.

So it kind of up to you on how you want do it. I don't think there is a standard.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

I do not think you understood my post, it is not a single switch it is 8 switches, one for each device.

It comes down to how do I protect all my devices now with one single surge protector with one single high rated plug socket.

 

[coxhaus]

You need to figure out how many amps your rack uses. I assume your equipment is all 110 v. If it is more than 20 amps you will need a higher end circuit or multiple circuits. This is assuming you have a dedicated 110v circuit that is not shared with any other plug. You can test this by tripping the circuit breaker.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

I am not sure yet as it is still being built out, the circuit is not dedicated no but it is 110v @ 15A.

Even if I had the load to do the math, I do not have any manufacturer, company, or product, I am aware of, that is going to do what I want. I figured people could recommend a product line and I will figure out what I need within that line but I cant even find a product other than a whole-house serge protector wired to the rack.

 

[coxhaus]

A good serge protector needs a good ground. You need to make sure the breaker box is grounded to a 8 foot copper rod planted in the ground. Then the gauge of wire is based on the number of amps for the breaker box. So the ground wire size which feeds into the common ground for the rack needs to be based on the number of amps used in the rack.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

We are going way off topic here, dancing around my question.

Yes I realize I need a total load to rate protection.
Yes I realize surge protection does not work without proper grounded lead path to discharge to.

Do you or not have a recommendation for a high-capacity single output/plug surge protection device?

 

[coxhaus]

How many amps and what voltage?

You have all you need to figure this out.

PS
Make sure you the appropriate power cord size for each device in the rack. Servers pull a lot more amps than desktops and a lot times need heavier power cords.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

....the circuit is not dedicated no but it is 110v @ 15A.

So 110v @ 15A = product model number?

 

[coxhaus]

You cannot switch 15 amps with a standard wall switch as it will burn out. So maybe just install a good ground for serge protection. Cheapest solution. You can build a master switch using a relay.

APC has good solutions. I would call them. I doubt they have anything less than 15 amps. Even though you don't need 15 amps for your rack because your circuit is not dedicated.

A battery backup solution can sometimes help with a non-dedicated circuits in that it can add momentary amps with over draws. It will cycle through batteries faster doing this. So you need to figure out total draw on the non-dedicated circuit.

Is your ISObar rated for 15 amps?

 

[sfx2000]

Keep in mind a few things with Racks...

Power Density can get quite high - 8KW or more, so plan for that. Might consider running a dedicated 240VAC circuit (2 if one wants redundancy) - keep in mind that Watts = Volts * Current, so more volts, less current needed.

Good rule of thumb for a rack PDU - 240VAC single phase, 32A which gives one 7,680W to work with.

Weight - a single rack, fully populated, can weigh up to 2700 lbs, so make sure for safety purposes, that the floor can support it, and that the rack is safely anchored.

Cooling - just keep that in mind, all power delivered to the rack eventually turns into heat that needs to be removed or dealt with.

There's specs for some communities (Telco, for example has NEBS), Cisco has a great white paper here...

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solut.../unified-computing/white_paper_c11-680202.pdf

 

[coxhaus]

When I installed my 1/2 rack in my computer room at my home I had 2 dedicated circuits installed. I had a 120v 20 amp dedicated circuit to run my 1/2 rack. I had a 220v 20 amp circuit installed to run my window air conditioner to cool the room. Without the AC I would sweat drips of water in my swim trunks.

I already had a 8 foot copper ground rod installed.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Wait what? I think there is still confusion here. 15A distributed across 8 switches, the total draw across 8 devices each on their own separate switch, on the other end of all the switches is a single plug.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GASJF2/?tag=snbforums-20

The iso bar is 12A, honestly the rack consists of a 16 port POE switch, a router/firewall, a stereo amp, and a NAS. I really do not think that it much, I originally was going to plug them all into the iso bar but then I loose capability of having a switch panel unless I want to plug the panels main into the isobar.

 

[sfx2000]

@PinkFloydEffect - just consider the numbers when planning for power in the rack.

@coxhaus makes some very good inputs here, and I've extended his with my feedback.

 

[coxhaus]

Wait what? I think there is still confusion here. 15A distributed across 8 switches, the total draw across 8 devices each on their own separate switch, on the other end of all the switches is a single plug.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GASJF2/?tag=snbforums-20

The iso bar is 12A, honestly the rack consists of a 16 port POE switch, a router/firewall, a stereo amp, and a NAS. I really do not think that it much, I originally was going to plug them all into the iso bar but then I loose capability of having a switch panel unless I want to plug the panels main into the isobar.

With your control center you are talking about dividing 12 amps by 8 switches so I would guess less than 2 amps per switch. I probably would not use something like that as it is too small. Guess as long as you don't over load it, it will work.