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jwz - dnalounge update: From: [info]feren
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 02:42 pm
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I'm sure there's some sort of ordinance for your neighborhood that will require a hearing and a permit if you were to try and have a generator permanently installed. Frankly I'd be surprised if you could rent one temporarily without inciting somebody's wrath.

When my employer went to have a generator installed for the new data center it was quite an ordeal. First we (MIS) argued with the company facilities managers about the need for a generator. Once they conceeded that shutting the entire business down was a bad thing we then had to argue with them about what kind of generator we needed (natural gas versus diesel... why this was a debate is anybody's guess) and then how big it should be. If you get a diesel generator that's providing too much power and you don't make use of it all you can fall victim to "wet stacking." Then we had to argue with the building managers who ran the office complex we rent space in, because they didn't want it installed on the roof and due to city zoning laws for office high-rises they couldn't lose any of the parking space around the data center, which eliminated the possibility of us annexing a space or two for a slab to be poured on. Once we got that worked out to everyone's satisfaction we applied for the permit to get the contractors on-site for wiring and installation -- said permit was promptly denied by the city council. It seems the building that houses the data center is right behind a condominum complex for semi-rich yuppie folk and they objected to the presence of a genny because "it would disturb the peace and lower their property values were it to be run on a regular basis." The fact that we were hoping the generator would in fact not have to run on a regular basis apparently escaped them.
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From: [info]travisd
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 04:02 pm
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Actually, if you're not running it weekly or at least monthly it likely won't work when you need it.

Our 800KW and prior 400KW both sounded like a Semi-tractor with the accellerator floored within about 3 seconds of kicking on. And we run it weekly for about 30 minutes at a crack to "exercise" it.

A colleague up in NJ has been dealing with generator zoning issues. The most workable solution seems to be get a "rental" and leave it on a properly road-licensed trailer in a parking spot outside the building.

Of course, if you have the room you could go completely inside with it. Our NYC datacenter has two 800KW diesels in the basement of a high-rise.

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From: [info]feren
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 04:26 pm
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[Actually, if you're not running it weekly or at least monthly it likely won't work when you need it.]

This happened to my father a few years ago. The city installed a generator for his firestation to power the dispatch center's radios and keep the apparatus floor online. They had a power failure in the summer and they stayed dark. After fifteen minutes of absolute silence my dad went out to check the system and discovered that it had never been run since the initial load test. The batteries had gone dead -- it couldn't start. Not terribly useful under those circumstances, especially since something that big can't be jump-started by your average pickup truck.

Ultimately what my employer did was cut a deal: we got patched into the big genny that was already installed on the property by another company for their datacenter, which was conveniently located underneath our own. So, in essence, we're leasing time on their unit from them. It's way over-sized (apparently they didn't care any about wetstacking, and told the power company to jam the biggest system they could into the room), so it's more than adequate to run our NOC and their own. The owners run a monthly test to keep it lubricated and the batteries charged while we check our transfer switch and the genny on a quarterly basis. It's quite a thing to behold, that V-12 Caterpillar. As you said, when it first starts up it sounds like the world is going to end.
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From: [info]jwz
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 09:56 pm
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We wouldn't get a generator permanently installed: we don't need it often enough for that to be worth it. I was just talking about having our electrician install some obvious patch points for a rental.

(No wait, what we should really do is get a two ton flywheel installed on the roof, like above.net has...)
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From: [info]billemon
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 11:35 pm
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I was just imagining someone saying it would "not be appropriate" to have a generator, ... or a flywheel on the roof for that matter ... :)
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From: [info]giantlaser
Date: February 15th, 2004 - 05:02 pm
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Man, am I glad we don't have to deal with zoning laws in Baghdad. :)

Here, every rich person and business has a backup power scheme. Some have a shared generator between several houses - my office/house gives free power to the three nearest houses. Some have small ones on the roof for critical systems. Some have enormous engines that run diesel and emit enormous clouds of black smoke. Some have mufflers. Some sound like Harley-Davidsons sized for 4-meter giants.

I haven't seen a house yet that doesn't have a giant mad-scientist-like switch for moving between city power and local. Ours has an automatic kick-in next to it that starts the generator when the voltage starts to drop, but the UPS units usually beep once before it fully starts.

My university physics classes on electricity didn't do shit to prepare me for the realities of Iraqi electrical systems. I can tell you what the average voltage and cycle rate is for city power and our generator, but I have no idea what size or capacity the generator actually is. Variable-voltage PC power supplies become your best friend.
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