The company I am working for at the moment has a radial circuit for their
server room (Small basement)

I had to shutdown the three servers & UPS yesterday, as I was installing an
additional comms card to the UPS.

When I turned the UPS back on (Loaded with a router, 24 port switch,
firewall and a monitor) it tripped its breaker.

I then realised the breaker is only rated at 16Amp
should this be 20A (As per normal radials?)

Would this indicate all the electrics should be checked for other problems?
(There doesn't seem to be any RCD's for anything either, just 100A isolators
in the two CU's)

This is in an office, would there be any requirement for having RCD's?

Sparks...

The company I am working for at the moment has a radial circuit for their
server room (Small basement)

ISTR something about load problems when several switch mode power supply
machines are switched on at once, and needing to over-rate the circuit
protection accordingly - `fraid I can`t be any more specific than that
though :-}

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In article ,
"Sparks" writes:
The company I am working for at the moment has a radial circuit for their
server room (Small basement)

I had to shutdown the three servers & UPS yesterday, as I was installing an
additional comms card to the UPS.

When I turned the UPS back on (Loaded with a router, 24 port switch,
firewall and a monitor) it tripped its breaker.

I then realised the breaker is only rated at 16Amp
should this be 20A (As per normal radials?)

There may be some reason it's 16A. It might be possible to
increase it and/or change it to a type which will allow a
larger switch-on surge through, but not without inspecting
the circuit.

Would this indicate all the electrics should be checked for other problems?

They should anyway. Most large companies I've worked for have
a building test done once every year or two. Probably should
be done at least every 5 years. It's part of an employer's
responsibility to ensure they provide a safe workplace.

(There doesn't seem to be any RCD's for anything either, just 100A isolators
in the two CU's)

This is in an office, would there be any requirement for having RCD's?

No. I only install RCD's on computer supplies in environments
where engineering work is routinely being performed, i.e. opening
up the system and working inside them.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Sparks" writes:

The company I am working for at the moment has a radial circuit for their
server room (Small basement)

I had to shutdown the three servers & UPS yesterday, as I was installing an
additional comms card to the UPS.

When I turned the UPS back on (Loaded with a router, 24 port switch,
firewall and a monitor) it tripped its breaker.

I then realised the breaker is only rated at 16Amp
should this be 20A (As per normal radials?)


There may be some reason it's 16A. It might be possible to
increase it and/or change it to a type which will allow a
larger switch-on surge through, but not without inspecting
the circuit.

I seem to recall we had to have the breaker on our UPS changed from a B
to a C type because of the start-up surge

Would this indicate all the electrics should be checked for other problems?


They should anyway. Most large companies I've worked for have
a building test done once every year or two. Probably should
be done at least every 5 years. It's part of an employer's
responsibility to ensure they provide a safe workplace.

I think the inspection intervals are specified in the OSG to the regs.

John Stumbles wrote in message ...

I seem to recall we had to have the breaker on our UPS changed from a B
to a C type because of the start-up surge

Best idea, will much improve matters.

But dont assume you can switch power on to a circuit heavily loaded
with IT equipment, beyond a certain loading you'll always need to
reduce load, energise circuit, then switch loads on. IT kit uses
SMPSUs which take a heavy switch on surge.

NT

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Sparks" writes:

I then realised the breaker is only rated at 16Amp
should this be 20A (As per normal radials?)

There may be some reason it's 16A. It might be possible to
increase it and/or change it to a type which will allow a
larger switch-on surge through, but not without inspecting
the circuit.


But is a 16 amp radial circuit for sockets acceptable? Garage CUs usually
come supplied with both a 6 amp and 16 amp breaker and it is quite obvious
what their uses are intended for. Recently during a test of one of my
rewires, the NIC guy I use made me change the 16 amp MCB for a 20 amp MCB in
the garage CU.

Adam