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Getting Power to a Rack Enclosure?
JazzyJ asks: "I need some ideas on some fire/electrical code compliant ways to get power into some bare bones rack mount enclosures I have. The racks are essentially in the center of a room with 3 ft around all sides. There's a 4 outlet box on each wall. Other than getting building maintenance to drop me a circuit along the floor or out of the ceiling, what options for getting power into these monsters do I have? Extension cords are right out, that is against fire/electrical code. Help!?"
Greater Elbonia has virtually no safety laws, being mostly mud flats with little natural resources and almost no government. Therefor, if extension cords are out (which surprises me, but perhaps they short out in the mud) and you can't get drops properly placed by building maintenance (and I can imagine how hard that is in Greater Elbonia), I would suggest beaming microwaves from the wall to the rack.
This has several advantages: *
* Advantages may be outweighed by frying every circuit in your computers.
Sig under construction since 1998.
You have something that needs power that isnt close to an outlet. You dont want to use extension cords. You dont want to get new outlets installed. So far as I understand how electricity, only the subject is left.
I've come across the same problem, and I came up with the following solution:
equipment required:
4 Microwave ovens (800W or greater)
4 metal trash can lids
40' copper tubing
Oh crap, I'm late for my brain tumor treatments, but as soon as I get back I'll post the rest of the instructions...
Dear Slashdot Readers,
Will you please do my job for me, as I am too fat/lazy to pick up the phone and call an electrician. Besides, my special dialing wand hasn't arrived yet and, technically, I shouldn't be using the phone at all for medical reasons. Tell you what! To make it extra fun, I won't tell you where I am or any local laws that might apply to my situation. Let the endless speculation begin!
Oh, and please hurry! I'm trying to leave early today and my boss wants an answer first thing in the morning.
When I was about 5 years old, I thought I tried making an extension cord with an unbent coathanger. The way it worked was I ran the wire through those little holes in the prongs of my clock radio, then the other end through the prongs of a fan. When I plugged it in.. POOF.
The results were pretty, but I wouldn't recommmend getting power to your rack this way. I had a hard enough time explaining to my dad the scorch that went up the wall, let alone the clock radio never working right. Though I think I know what I did wrong, I never attempted that experiment again.
"Derp de derp."
... aside from doing it the safe/correct way, how can I save a few bucks and reduce the risk of buring down my office?
Well, if it's anything like the university I went to, it's easy!
1) Put in a request to the building&grounds people that you need a new junction box placed within easy access of the racks.
2) They promise you a quick response.
3) After six weeks, realize you need power _now_ and run a few power strips through the floor panels.
4) Union rep appears 1 hour later, removes strips , fines your department for using non-union labor.
5) Wait 2 more months, still no response from union electrician. Run an extension cord from your office, across the hall, into the room, thus not violating Union reqs (no floor panels touched!)
6) Fire marshall appears, fines department for fire hazard.
7) Dean of department calls you in, explains they are firing you due to the trouble you've caused in fines and Union difficulties. Voila! Problem solved, you no longer need to worry about power to the racks!
(And oddly enough, I support unions in general!)
A.
I'd suggest using copper wires to get the power to the rack. I was in Home Depot yesterday, and it seemed that they had some very reasonable prices for short lengths of wires. It shouldn't be too much trouble to get approval for the purchase. Glad to help.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
Get as many Submarine StandBy Batteries as needed to run this for the expected period of time. (months, years...)
Now you have the Rack powered with no external wiring!
I like microcars
But without using wings or tools or jumping from anything. Basically I want to start at the bottom of a canyon, and rise up to the top.
How can this best be accomplished without using wires/cords, or any sort of attachemnt/tractor beam?
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Sometimes it helps to read an RFC when you have a question like this.
Well, Since you've ruled out running cables through the three known spatial dimensions, I suggest you try using a wormhole. Simply generate a wormhole (in the usual way), and, using a pair of exotic matter gloves, place one end of the wormhole inside the rack. Then place the other end near an outlet; this outlet can be near the wall, or some outer region of the universe... basically, wherever you can get the cheapest electricity. Next, simply plug in the cord, and feed it into the hole. I would advise that you perform this step from outside the cosmos, especially if the wormhole hasn't been thoroughly tested to comply with local building codes. If the universe as we know it hasn't been completely obliterated at this point, then you're done!
Note: You may also want to run your ethernet cables through there as well, to function as a very convenient, low-cost hyper-dimensional gigabit wireless network.
Oh, come on, people. We shouldn't give up just because we've been given an impossible situation without enough information. This is Slashdot! B'sides, these specs are more detailed than anything you'll ever see in the real world. Some ideas:
-Plug a Van de Graaf generator into the outlet. Put wires on top of the rack (e.g. a lightning rod). Attach to a capacitor and a DC-AC converter, and you're golden.
-Set up a bunch of rechargeable batteries and an army of Lego Mindstorms robots to shuttle the batteries back and forth from the outlet to the rack.
-Put in really bright overhead lights and solar panels on top of each rack.
-If you have a good AC system, thermal couplings between the AC and the machines might generate enough power. The laws of thermodynamics were made to be broken!
-Hamsters, water bottles full of Jolt cola, and hamster wheels hooked to generators.
-Finally, Steampunk is not just a frings Sci-Fi/RPG genre. A few cans of Sterno and a boiler can provide you with enough steam to run whatever computational engines you might have.
Forward, retransmit, or republish anything I say here. Just don't misquote me.
Just run a big fat hose from the nearest water tap and pipe it into a small hydroelectric turbine near the computer rack.
Advantages:
Shielded from spikes on the grid
Use the water to cool the servers
UPS functionality - as long as you have water, you have power
The whine from the turbine will drown out the whine from your manager
No cords!
Money for nothing, pix for free