Reasons Why Industrial Circuit Breakers for Data Centers are Important

Most individuals are familiar with circuit breakers for residences. They are often located in an attic or basement inside a breaker box or panelboard. Industrial circuit breakers for data centers, while similar in principal, however, are very different in capacity and process.

What is are Breakers?

Breakers act to limit the total amount of electrical flowing through a circuit. A common household breaker is limited to 20 amperes. That means a household breaker will allow 20 amperes of current to heat the bimetallic strip within the breaker to bend it down and release the spring-loaded trip-level. This helps to avoid overheating. A backup mechanism is also in place to handle large, unexpected surges.

What are Industrial Circuit Breakers for Data Centers?

Just like a common household-level circuit, electrical equipment, such as circuits and breakers, are an important part of any electrical system. They provide a level of safety and security in order to avoid product damage and individual injury. When a higher-level breaker is required, such as for industrial equipment, including industrial circuit breakers for data centers, it is important to completely understand all power requirements involved and how those breakers will interact with critical data center equipment.

Understanding the Importance of Industrial Circuit Breakers for Data Centers

What is most important when selecting industrial circuit breakers for data centers is that it is reliable in its core function, so a data center can function in a dependable and safe manner. As a result, it is always a good idea to perform a detailed analysis of all the equipment located within the data center, so the correct design and functionality of the breakers for data centers is selected and implemented.

For example, a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) provides a critical window of opportunity when there is a power failure within a building or geographical region. UPS equipment allows time for IT staff to complete a sequential and organized shutdown of servers and other equipment in order to avoid potential catastrophic equipment and data damage. UPS equipment should be part of every data center power audit and documentation so it can work hand-in-hand with industrial circuit breakers to product data and hardware.

Most commonly, lower voltage power circuit breakers for data centers are used in centers designed in recent years. These breakers are better designed to meet the needs of large data centers housing servers, phone systems, email systems, company security systems and more. These breakers comply with testing requirements to ensure they will work consistently and reliably.

When selecting circuit breakers for data centers, it is important that IT personnel work directly with power and electricity professionals to make sure the breakers selected for the data center can adequately handle the power requirements involved in supporting all the equipment in the center properly. It is also important to consult with building management to make sure any changes to power requirements for the data center will not create a potentially larger issue with the overall power plan for the building.

As with any power change, selecting and installing new industrial circuit breakers for data centers is a large project that requires coordination on multiple fronts. By doing appropriate up front planning, however, potentially issues will be greatly minimized.