A  Tale  of  Two  Standards  –  for  Data  Center  Savings     Anyone  involved  with  mission  critical  facilities  understands  that  operating  a  data  center  is   expensive.    As  energy  and  power  costs  rise,  typical  data  centers  pay  millions  of  dollars  in  power   bills  in  addition  to  other  equipment  and  IT  costs.    The  more  data  is  used  –  from  emails,  to   streaming  video,  to  the  Internet,  monitoring,  security,  etc.  –  the  higher  the  cost  of  data  center   operations.       While  data  centers  address  the  burden  of  increased  operational  and  power  expenses,  there  are   ways  to  utilize  infrastructure  changes  to  allow  for  savings.    One  such  strategy  –  used  world  over   and  only  recently  entering  the  U.S.  market  -­‐  is  the  use  of  low  voltage  UL  approved  Form  4b  Type   7  design  switchgear.      With  space  a  finite  resource  for  data  centers,  every  square  foot  consumed   by  gear  in    the  power  chain  takes  away  from  revenue-­‐generating  IT  equipment.      U.S.  data   center  operators  can  better  utilize  their  available  space  using  Form  4b  Type  7  design’s  compact,   fully  compartmentalized  and  robust  switchgear  option  for  mission  critical  applications.     Furthermore,  this  allows  data  centers  to  invest  in  superior  power  systems,  system  fault   resilience  and  enhanced  operator  safety.    And  with  more  space  allotted  to  production,  the  more   revenues  can  be  generated  from  the  facility.     To  understand  why  this  design  is  just  entering  the  U.S.  market,  we  need  to  look  at  the  history  of   its  evolution.     US  vs  Europe  –  NEMA  vs  IEC     The  two  predominant  electrical  standards  for  the  world  have  been:  the  International  Electro-­‐ technical  Commission  (IEC)  used  throughout  Europe  and  the  National  Electric  Manufacturers   Association  (NEMA)  used  primarily  in  the  United  States.  Both  of  these  standards,  developed   from  different  design  philosophies,  emerged  from  the  post-­‐World  War  II  Europe  and  US   experiences.     The  US  emerged  from  the  war  as  an  industrial  giant  with  very  few  challengers  on  the  world   stage.    While  Europe,  by  contrast,  was  depleted  of  both  natural  and  human  resources       Europe,  by  necessity,  used  its  limited  resources  with  great  care.    Out  of  this  necessity  arose  an   application-­‐oriented  design  philosophy  focused  on  personal  safety,  and  elimination  of  potential   hazards.    As  mentioned  earlier,  Human  resources  were  in  as  much  demand  as  physical  resources   in  Europe  which  gave  birth  to  such  design  innovations  as:  finger  safe  protection,   compartmentalization,  insulated  Busbars,  and  others.         Also,  as  each  country  developed  its  own  standards  -­‐-­‐  the  British  Standard  (BS)  in  England,  and  its   former  colonies,  VDE  in  Germany,  and  other  individual  country  standards  –  IEC  became  the   preferred  process  and  methodology  of  combining  these  standards  under  one  umbrella.       By  contrast,  the  U.S.  had  vast  natural  and  human  resources  as  the  human  casualty  in  the  war   was  far  less  than  that  in  Europe.  When  nearly  eight  million  service  men  and  women  returned  to   the  U.S.,  they  were  ready  to  work,  and  work  they  did!  

  The  post  war  production  in  the  U.S.  was  unlike  anything  the  world  had  seen  up  to  that  point.   Robust  electrical  and  mechanical  designs  emerged  -­‐-­‐  in  many  cases  overdesigned  for  the   application.       Where  Europe  focused  on  the  application  and  personal  safety,  the  U.S.  focused  on  training  of   personnel  and  a  robust  design  philosophy  that  generated  products  that  would  perform  under   the  most  extreme  duress  and  for  years  beyond  their  anticipated  life  spans.     In  the  late  1990’s,  with  the  expansion  of    the  global  economy    both  NEMA  and  IEC  recognized   the  need  to  harmonize  the  standards  and  formed    what  became  known  as  the  Technical   Advisory  Groups  (TAG)  which  worked  closely  to  aligned  the  different  standards.  .  The  TAG  teams   made  a  great  deal  of  progress  in  areas  like  industrial  control,  automation,  instrumentation,  and   circuit  breaker  technology.       During  this  period  and  up  until  the  present  day,  one  area  of  design  continued  on  the  divergent   paths;  low  voltage  electrical  switchgear.    While  in  the  U.S.  the  LV  switchgear  has  been  primarily   driven  by  the  UL  892  and  1558  standards,  EMEA  pursed  the  IEC-­‐609349for  low  voltage   switchgear.      There  are  significant  design  differences,  but  not  necessarily  in  performance.  Both   standards  are  safe  and  suitable  for  the  U.S.  market  however,  you  would  rarely  see  a  UL891   product  used  in  areas  of  the  world  where  IEC  is  the  dominant  standard.     The  key  differences  are  expressed  in  personal  safety,  footprint,  and  component  segregation.  For   the  purposes  of  this  article,  we  will  focus  on  the  UL891  standard  as  compared  to  IEC-­‐609349   Form  4b  Type  7.     In  the  BEMEA  Guide  to  Forms  of  Separation  –  Low  Voltage  and  Controlgear  Assemblies  to  BS  EN   61439-­‐2,  published  in  July  2011,  it  states,  “The  principle  reason  for  separating  an  assembly  is  to   facilitate  the  access  to  a  part  of  the  assembly  whilst  other  parts  may  remain  energized  and  in   service.  Whilst,  in  general,  separation  does  not  improve  the  electric  performance  of  the   assembly  it  does  provide:   ● Protection  against  contact  with  live  parts  belonging  to  the  adjacent  functional  units.   ● Protection  against  the  passage  of  solid  foreign  bodies  from  one  unit  of  an  assembly  to   an  adjacent  unit.”      Due  to  the  design  differences,  a  legacy  UL891  switchboard  would  not  be  acceptable  for  use  by  a   customer  in  EMEA  and  would  not  be  able  to  comply  with  IEC  standards.         However,  it  is  possible  for  an  IEC  Form4b  Type  7  to  comply  with  UL891.         But  it’s  no  small  feat!  The  certification  process  for  UL  is  rigorous  and  requires  extensive   preparation,  documentation  and  testing.     In  order  to  understand  the  differences  between  a  legacy  UL  891  product  and  the  UL  certified   Form  4b  Type  7  product,  let’s  take  a  look  at  the  principal  design  features  of  each  product.        

  Design  Differences:  UL  891  v.s  Form  4b  Type  7     One  of  the  key  design  differences  between  these  two  designs  is  the  physical  size  of  the  unit.  The   table  below  provides  a  comparison  between  the  legacy  UL891  gear  (black)  and  UL  certified  Form   4b  Type  7  (red).     Vendor  

Depth    

Height    

Length    

1  

80”  

91”  

22”,  30”  &  36”  fixed  options  

2  

80”  

92"  

22”,  30”  &  36”  fixed  options  

3  

74”  

92”  

22”,  30”  &  38”  fixed  options  

4  

90”  

97”  

23”,  31”  &  39”  fixed  options  

5  

39”  

89”  

Modular  in  4”  increments    

  Data  center  construction  techniques  have  evolved  over  the  years  to  include  many  design   concepts  including  modular  buildings  and  skid-­‐mounted  products  that  are  prepared  in  a  factory   setting  for  deployment  in  the  field.  Regardless  of  the  design,  space  in  the  data  center  is  always   at  a  premium,  and  the  more  space  that  can  be  allotted  to  production,  the  more  revenue  can  be   generated  from  the  facility.       The  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  product  offers  significant  and  positive  impact  by  reducing  the   amount  of  space  required  for  this  component  of  the  power  chain.     Another  distinguishing  feature  of  the  UL  certified  Form4b  Type  7  switchgear  is  in  the   segregation  of  components.    In  legacy  UL891  construction  the  individual  components  within  a  

single  vertical  section  are  open  -­‐-­‐  as  illustrated  in  the  figures  below.

 

 

  The  open  construction  of  the  typical  UL891  product  allows  a  fault  in  a  single  component  to   affect  other  components  in  the  same  vertical  structure.    With  this  design,  there  is  very  little   isolation  of  components  to  prevent  an  electrical  arc  from  travelling  through  the  switchboard   damaging  other  components  and  needlessly  affect  the  operation  of  large  parts  of  the  data   center.     By  contrast,  the  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  product  provides  a  high  level  of  segregation  of:     ● Incoming  line  connections   ● Horizontal  busses  are  completely  isolated   ● Vertical  busses  are  isolated  from  the  horizontal  bus  and  circuit  breaker  compartments   ● Circuit  breakers  are  in  an  individual  compartment  and  isolated  from  the  other   components  

 

● ●

The  load  side  connection  to  the  distribution  circuit  breakers  are  isolated  resulting  in  a   safer  method  for  connecting  the  load   The  instrumentation  compartments  are  totally  segregated  and  protected  from  other   components  in  the  switchboard  (see  figures  below).  

  (PHOTOS  TO  BE  ADDED)     The  segregation  of  components  is  critical  to  the  design  and  performance  of  the  UL  certified   Form  4b  Type  7  equipment.  Through  compartmentalization,  a  data  center  can  achieve  a  higher   level  of  performance  and  reduce  downtime  due  to  human  error  or  a  component  failure,  such  as   a  fault  induced  in  a  single  circuit  breaker.     An  important  advantage  of  the  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  equipment  is  arc  containment.  Arc   flash  calculations  are  based  on  a  number  of  different  factors  and  there  are  very  few  products   that  can  claim  they  are  completely  arc  flash  safe.  Those  that  claim  this  are  generally   cumbersome  to  work  on  and  come  with  a  very  high  price  tag.  .     The  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  equipment  provides  a  level  of  containment  that  can  help   reduce  the  damage    from  an  electrical  arc  by  containment  and  isolation.    It  offers  a  higher  level   of  protection,  based  on  the  inherent  design,  at  a  reasonable  cost  and  provides  much  better   human  protection  for  personnel  that  work  on  the  equipment.     Additionally,  the  amount  of  PPE  required  may  be  reduced  due  to  the  inherent  design  features  of   the  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  equipment.     In  summary,  the  competitive  advantages  of  a  UL  certified  Form  4b  Type  7  design  –  in   comparison  to  legacy  UL891  product  available  on  the  market  today  -­‐-­‐offer:     ● A  more  compact  footprint     ● A  higher  level  of  protection  for  internal  components   ● A  higher  level  of  human  protection   ● Better  arc  flash  characteristics       More  importantly,  in  considering  rising  data  center  operations  cost,  the  UL  certified  Form  4b   Type  7  achieves  all  of  these  functions  at  a  price  point    equal  to,  or  better  than,  the  legacy  UL891   design.     Data  center  operators  considering  their  operational  costs  should  explore  the  options  offered  by   Form  4b  Type  7  designs  and  the  increased  safety  and  decreased  downtime  advantages  for  their   data  center.     John  Day  is  VP  of  Sales  and  Marketing  for  Anord  Critical  Power  which  recently  introduced  its   innovative  UL  approved  Form  4b  Type  7  design  AMS  switchgear  to  the  U.S.  market.    

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