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Use of 16 and 32A radial sockets in data centres

Russell Bulley
Radial sockets seem to be detailed in BS7671 appendix 15 as domestic only. Are there any regulations providing guidance for the above?


I was quite surprised to see strings of IEC type sockets CEE arrangement (with earthed pins) linked together with a single radial feed from another socket, of course all unfused. The whole are protected by 20A RCBO’s. Generally the arrangement is as the left hand side of fig.15b, without the junction box. I assume this is standard practice in Europe?


Russ
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    This is not unusual and is perfectly fine, but it is not BS7671 territory either as this is the consumer (data centre) installation. The reason why there is no problem is simple, the loads are known and each is protected internally against faults causing overload (usually fuses). So 6 servers with a maximum demand of 500W each or less is not overloading anything, and a short circuit fault in the cables or supply cable to the original presumably blue BS4343 one will happily disconnect the supply quite quickly. As the whole place is under the control of supposedly competent people, no one is going to plug a kettle into the sockets and if they did the 20A fuse would probably blow quite quickly but anyway it takes time for any significant damage due to overload to occur.


    A fault in a server would blow its own device fuse (maybe a small circuit breaker) and leave the rest operating normally, at least that is how it is designed.
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  • 0
    This is not unusual and is perfectly fine, but it is not BS7671 territory either as this is the consumer (data centre) installation. The reason why there is no problem is simple, the loads are known and each is protected internally against faults causing overload (usually fuses). So 6 servers with a maximum demand of 500W each or less is not overloading anything, and a short circuit fault in the cables or supply cable to the original presumably blue BS4343 one will happily disconnect the supply quite quickly. As the whole place is under the control of supposedly competent people, no one is going to plug a kettle into the sockets and if they did the 20A fuse would probably blow quite quickly but anyway it takes time for any significant damage due to overload to occur.


    A fault in a server would blow its own device fuse (maybe a small circuit breaker) and leave the rest operating normally, at least that is how it is designed.
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