On Sun, 22 Mar 1998, Howard C. Berkowitz wrote:
Yes. And your consultant must know local practices as well. If you are building a facility in Fairfax County, Virginia (a major technology suburb of Washington DC), avoid, in your plans or anything the building inspector may see, the term "computer room." "Communications room," "network room," etc., all prevent the problem: if they see "computer room," they will demand a mainframe-style central emergency power off control, which greatly increases electrical wiring cost.
What? That should not increase the cost at all, and is required in most areas. All you need to do is get a shunt trip breaker and you are all set. I was able to build my colo in Atlanta with the shunt trip off the main 600 Amp 3 Phase panel. In doing this the USP still protected the load, but V/AC and lighting was shutoff. I think I spent $100 more for the shunt trip. The breaker is what cost us the big bucks, but not as much as the 800 Amp 3 Phase breaker on the UPS output.
I haven't looked at this recently, but another Fairfax County practice was if you used halon, regardless if the room was also sprinklered, you had to do a live test with halon before the inspector would approve it. The
Ya, and you had to hold the test for a specified time without any air/halon leaking out. If you are building a new POP, HALON in ANY city is not legal any more. The bad news is there are still a few major areas that have not approved the HALON substitute. So you end up with a pre-action water system with high temp heads. -- Nathan Stratton Telecom & ISP Consulting www.robotics.net nathan@robotics.net