If you manage a data center, then you should pay great attention to the power requirements of your server equipment. Since the businesses nowadays are dealing with increasing amount of data and applications, the number of server equipments required in a data center is required has increased manifold. The server racks have certainly helped to pack the equipment tightly in the server room but the tight density has led to another problem. Nowadays there are increasing cases of the 110 Volts circuits getting overloaded and thus requiring additional circuits or server racks. You can prevent the problems of overloading circuits by switching to 208 Volts power supply instead of a North American standard off 110 Volts. Since most of the server equipment is manufactured for universal power supplies, they recognize the input voltage automatically and work correctly even with a high voltage power supply. Plus there are several advantages of using a 208 V power supply that are described below.
First of all, the 208 V power supply allows you to connect nearly double the number of equipment to a circuit when compared to the 110 V power supply. This results in an in instant improvement in your server equipment capacity. The 208 voltage power supply can also reduce your power consumption thereby leading to significant savings in your power tariff. This makes it a very important consideration that every small and medium sized business must take into account when they are establishing their data centers.
When you have a 208 V power supply, it will allow you to operate your data center with less number of power whips under the floor when you have raised floor environment. The fewer power whips you have, the fewer circuits you need to manage and thus it will reduce the clutter below the floor. This will also improve the airflow which directly results in lesser cost of cooling. The improved airflow also improves the life of your server and air conditioning equipment.
The 208 V power supply is also more efficient and can result in power savings. This is because the 208 V power line consists of two live lines when compared to 110 V power line that consists of only one in live line. The 2 phase power supply allows you to run your data center efficiently with less power consumption.
The high voltage power supply may not always be a feasible option due to the type of environment you have and whether you have the budget to retrofit your entire data center with the 208 V power. However you must consider the benefits of 208 V power supply before you make any decision. Using the high voltage power supply results in an power saving, improved cooling and ventilation and better server rack density. Plus you save a lot of money in power bills, maintenance and repairs of server and air conditioning equipment. All this definitely makes the 208 V power supply an attractive proposition.
