Looking for 240 V 20 amp surge protection.

[Epycly Screwed]

Hello everyone


I have a EVGA 2000 watt power supply that takes 200 - 240 volts and 50 - 60 Hz. It uses a standard American 3 prong plug in to plug in to the wall. I am having a real struggle finding something that is compatible let alone rack mountable.

What do you guys use to protect your 240 V power supplies? Is surge protection even necessary?

 

[piranha32]

120-ish volt is not a very popular mains voltage around the world. It is used mainly in the North America, a few countries in South America and Asia. If you're looking for something rack-mounted, look around in European and Asian stores. There is a good chance that some of them may be even UL-rated, for use in US-based datacenters. You can also easily buy non-rackable surge protectors, but don't expect them to be certified in the US (if you care about it. Good quality devices will be as safe to use, as anything else what has UL rating)

 

[nexox]

The plug you're using might be the issue - it's a NEMA 5-15p and those are only for 120V circuits, by code, if you want any 220V accessories you need to look for some with 220V plugs/receptacles like the NEMA 6-15p (looks like the 5-15 but both blades are rotated 90 degrees) plus a new cord to connect to the power supply. There are also various kinds of data center PDUs with IEC receptacles (the opposite connector to the one on the back of a typical PSU, they're good to 250V,) but they don't usually offer much surge protection, since that would be handled well before power gets to individual racks.

Maybe there's something from Europe you could make work, but it would require at least a replacement of the plug if you care about building codes and/or want a professional electrician to install the necessary 220V outlet for you. Alternately you might be able to find a 220V UPS that will also do surge protection, but don't expect that to be cheap, light, or compact.

 

[BlueFox]

You're not finding anything because the setup you've described is not to code and a safety hazard. If you really have a NEMA 5-15P outlet wired for 240V, then you should get that fixed ASAP. It's quite dangerous. The outlet is also only rated for 15A, not 20A. You need a NEMA 6-20R for that and to ensure that your wiring is the correct gauge to support 20A.

208/240V gear is readily available in the US. You can buy it off Newegg, CDW, Provantage, etc, as we speak. Many are going to have locking connectors however.

 

[Epycly Screwed]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll be talking to my apartment maintenance guy about this.

However I'm pretty sure I am mistaken about how many amps I need. The circuit breaker is 20 amps and can provide 240 V. I'm obviously not drawing 4800 watts and therefor wouldn't be maxing out the circuit breaker.


I'm really not confident about how this works but I would assume at the most it would use 10 amps (because the lowest voltage the PSU takes is 200 V and 10 A * 200 V is 2000 watts)

 

[oldpenguin]

The circuit breaker is 20 amps and can provide 240 V. I'm obviously not drawing 4800 watts and therefor wouldn't be maxing out the circuit breaker.

Normally not, but can you guess what will happen were something to malfunction and short on the line voltage part of the PSU? You're literally playing with fire here.

 

[BlueFox]

If you're in an apartment, I find it quite unlikely you have 240V outlets available outside of the oven, stove, and dryer (and the first 2 are commonly hardwired anyway). Have you confirmed you are actually getting 240V at the outlet in question with a multimeter? Your circuit breaker saying it's rated for 240V does not mean you have 240V available. You would actually need a double circuit breaker that spans 2 phases to achieve that in a residential environment.