Power Distribution for Home Lab

stevcha

Hi guys,

What do you guys recommend for power distribution and surge protection for a skeletek rack? Not sure I need an APC right now but maybe down the road. Thanks!!

rotoruaguy

Well I say a good old UPS. They work way better than the "surge protector" power boards out there and for a good one costs about the same as a second hand UPS and a new battery.

networker050184

Just plug them into a surge protector. If you have an UPS then I guess you could use that too. I don't think a home lab is really worth the purchase of one though.

dynamik

The company who makes the Skeletek rack offers a PDU: http://www.dantraknet.com/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=94

I just picked up a pair of those myself.

networker050184

Maybe just me, but that sure seems like a waste of money for a home lab. If you have the money just laying around with nothing better to spend it on then I guess it makes sense. I just plug mine into a power strip.....

dynamik

networker050184 wrote:

Maybe just me, but that sure seems like a waste of money for a home lab. If you have the money just laying around with nothing better to spend it on then I guess it makes sense. I just plug mine into a power strip.....

It's just a power strip that fits in a rack. $25 for 10 outlets isn't that outrageous. I guess I'm just willing to pay the $5 "it looks cool in my rack tax"

networker050184

$25 for a power strip is outrageous to me. You could have just bought another 2500 or two and a cheap power strip (if you didn't already have one around the house). I guess if you are more worried about your rack looking "cool" then more power to you

mikej412

networker050184 wrote:

I don't think a home lab is really worth the purchase of one though.

It depends on where you live and how stable your power is. I remember only 2 power outages the entire time I was growing up in Chicago -- but was thrilled that this summer's 4 outages over a 3 week period (none longer than 4 hours) was less than the previous summers 6 outages (including one for over 24 hours). And that doesn't count the spikes where I lose the clock setting on the microwave.

I have my bedroom alarm clock on a UPS because I got tired of resetting it with all the spikes we get out here in the Chicago far Northwest Suburbs.

With what I spend on replacing USP batteries (not even counting the new UPS units for my Cisco Racks), I could pay for one of these these in a couple of years, but I'm actually leaning towards this one for the whole house, and the big Honda Generator to recharge it -- though I might consider this in the future, since I only expect our power situation to get worse, not better.

networker050184

With all those power outages I would look into these. Might save you a little in the long run since I know your lab pulls some juice!

mikej412

networker050184 wrote:

With all those power outages I would look into these.

That's phase II I was looking at $24-35K solar solutions just a couple of days ago. It would work nicely with the whole house UPS. It's the PCs running 24x7 that suck down the juice.

mobri09

Does anyone know where i can get a power strip like below BUT with switches to turn off and on each particular outlet???
http://www.dantraknet.com/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=94

dtlokee

I use APC AP9211 power strips on most of my equipment so I can turn them on and off remotely. I don't know if you can still get them new anymore (I have had mine for 4-5 years now), but you can find them on ebay. They will cost you a little more, but by being able to turn the gear on and off remotely will save money in electricity over time. They are not a surge protector or UPS, you will still need one of those if you desire.

stevcha

dynamik wrote:

The company who makes the Skeletek rack offers a PDU: http://www.dantraknet.com/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=94

I just picked up a pair of those myself.

dynamik, thanks for the info. I ended up ordering one of these for my rack.

rotoruaguy

Good solar with the gennie!! There are towns in Australia that thats all they have. That being said its sunny here for about 350+ days here because its only just starting to rain

freetech

I have a Skeletek rack and I just used pull-ties to secure a UPS to the bottom cross-bar and also used a power strip along one of the legs.
Love it.

dynamik

freetech wrote:

I have a Skeletek rack and I just used pull-ties to secure a UPS to the bottom cross-bar and also used a power strip along one of the legs.
Love it.

Classy

freetech

Elitist!
It actually looks a lot better than it sounds. It is all trussed up very neatly, thank you very much.
I keep it all together (including an old Thinkpad 770 as a TFTP server) and roll it around the house so i can practice wherever needed.

dynamik

freetech wrote:

I keep it all together (including an old Thinkpad 770 as a TFTP server) and roll it around the house so i can practice wherever needed.

Visualizing this has been the highlight of my day.

"Dammit! I have to go to the bathroom again. *sigh* C'mon Cisco Rack. Let's go..."

dtlokee

freetech wrote:

Elitist!
It actually looks a lot better than it sounds. It is all trussed up very neatly, thank you very much.
I keep it all together (including an old Thinkpad 770 as a TFTP server) and roll it around the house so i can practice wherever needed.

You might be an engineer geek if you've ever tried to convert your Cisco rack into an R2D2 unit

phreak

I was planning on just using an older APC 1000VA 2U UPS. I also was thinking about running a dedicated 20A service to the router rack off it's own breaker, but I am just hardcore like that.....


Really though, a small UPS with enough time to let you shut things down gracefully durring those extended lab sessions (and minor outages) should be enough.

If you wanted to really go hardcore, a Best FerrUPS would be the perfect option, and even better would be some kind of positive or negative 48VDC system (with all the gear being 48V compliant mind you) and then the whole thing could be battery fed.