Seismic Ratings

When do you need to have seismic rated equipment?  Should you have all equipment rated for an earthquake or just redundant equipment?  What equipment would be rated for a seismic event?  Of course the answer to these questions is - it depends. 

The need for seismic rated equipment depends on the level of risk that can be accepted.  The first place to start would be to investigate the seismic zone at the location of the data center.  The applicable building codes will have guidance based on the zone, which will also specify the seismic requirements for life safety equipment.  This can be a good place to start to guage whether the equipment should be as robust to keep a facility, or just certain areas, operating after an event. 

Looking at the seismic needs for only the mission critical areas is one way to cut the cost of providing seismic rated equipment versus typical equipment.  Another way to cut costs is to provide only seismic rated equipment on the equipment needed to provide the bare minimum of power and cooling.  This is a risk that must be recognized, as this would neglect occupied areas and ventilation. 

Should your redundant equipment be seismic rated?  If it is not, it would not be considered truly redundant.  Perhaps that is a risk to be taken in a lower earthquake region, but otherwise this may not be the wisest recommendation. 

While your equipment may have a seismic rating the other systems, such as piping, should be considered to have the proper supports.  After all, your equipment will not be able to operate long without the rest of the interconnecting systems to support it. 

Although this doesn't have much to do with energy efficiency it has everything to do with maintaining operability after a seismic event.  When an earthquake happens, reliability still becomes the first goal of most data centers.  With seismic rated equipment checking and fixing becomes mcuh easier and the number of replacements is reduced, which is ultimately greener.

What's Your Battery Room Spill Plan?

When is the last time you thought about the plumbing in your data center?  Likely, it is not often, but for your battery rooms it can be vitally important.  From day to day, most lead-acid batteries are stable, but a spill management plan can address the many safety, health, and environmental concerns long before trouble arises. 

For an owner/operator to address a battery room's requirements, the spill management plan should address the hazards for each room specifically.  There should be a control area to contain an acid (electrolyte) spill and that area should not be part of any egress, especially not blocking an emergency exit.  The controlled area will likely have a barrier that can handle the physical stress of day-to-day access to the batteries as well as the chemical attack from a leak or spill.  Next there should be the means to neutralize the electrolyte, which can be done with absorption or through a neutralization system.  Lastly, the area will need to be cleaned, but this should be done very carefully for all of the same safety, health, and environmental reasons. 

There are a few things to look for after a spill event.  If there is concrete that was exposed to the acid for a prolonged period, the structural supporting steel (rebar) within the concrete could have been attacked by the acid after it worked its way through the pores of the concrete.  While this is generally mild at the beginning, it can create a prolonged exposure of the steel that will degrade over time.  Multiple spills will compound this problem. 

With a drain system, the acid will react with the metal pipe, with one of the products released being hydrogen.  Since the reaction is exothermic (releases heat), for a large spill there is the concern of trapped hydrogen igniting before it reaches any downstream neutralization pit or tank.  This can be addressed by keeping that tank or pit close to the source to prevent a long pipe from holding a lot of acid for a long period. 

Environmentally, we want to make sure that a plumbing neutralization pit or tank can handle the acid spill and that the resulting waste will be acceptable in the sanitary system.  Sometimes marble chips can be used in a tank, but the concern is that the reaction with the acid will form a film that will prevent further neutralization and the acid will continue untreated.  The fumes from the acid reacting with the normal sanitary system should be dealt with by the sanitary vents; however the gases released are terrible for air quality and can be hazardous for anyone near the vent outlets until the acid is neutralized. 

Water Mist or Gaseous Suppression?

For data center fire suppression, this can be a tricky issue.  Which is more dangerous?  Which might hurt my IT equipment? 

Having either system is not dangerous, and is much more desireable than no protection.  In this comparison, both are assumed to be 'dry' pipe systems, and therefore not a threat to IT equipment due to the most prevalent IT risk - human error.  Upon activation, a gaseous system will not damage equipment, and some owners will choose gas based on this factor alone.  A water mist system is not a threat unless the mist system is activated for a prolonged period, at which the micro drops of water begin to collect and become actual water droplets.  Actually, the larger water droplets aren't much of a threat either, unless you happen to have your equipment exposed instead of within typical server or blade cases.  These days, tinkering with equipment like that is just not done as much, let alone running with it out of the case for a prolonged period.  In a water mist system, the micro drops are about 25-200 microns, and due to the behavior of water at this small level it will not be conductive to make a short circuit on computer equipment as readily. 

One of the big factors is also cost.  FM200 and similar systems definitely have an advantage in cost for data centers with less volume, perhaps up to about 2,000 square feet.  But at about 4,000 square feet, the cost advantage begins to weigh much more in favor of a water mist system.  This is because the mist system typically has a pump, no matter the size of the data center, that is included in the cost.  As the size of the data center increases the gaseous suppression system just balloons to match the volume needed. 

Business law and the regulatory environment

Over the past year I have learned a lot about business and the messaging components.  I have learned that there is a lot that goes into the process, from raw research to how communications firms translate that information to an informative message.  Having a business unit behind you to do all of this is a great asset, one which I have not had until recently. 

Since I have been getting some external aid, I have learned much more about why and how to convey information.  There is the important process of presentation that is part of the public relations.  Doing this properly is the means to change, instead of spilling information onto the web and hoping others will grab and learn from it.  So it was with a great amount of trepidation from certain legal entities that the site was stalled, but not dismantled, until now. 

Once again I hope to share and enlighten through this site.  I seek to empower others with information that can be used to improve facilities and their use of energy.

Back Online...

The GDCM is back, and will soon be posting freely to discuss the info you'd like to know more about.  I've learned way more than I would have liked about lawyers, corporations and posturing, but that's not what this site is meant to be about.  Until we get the rest of the kinks worked out here, feel free to track the GDCM twitter posts for the latest industry news.