We're sure that the amount of copper used in our datacentre is, in some small way, contributing to it's ever-increasing price. From switchboards, to air conditioning plumbing, to rack cabling, to mains supply cabling - there's a lot of copper.

The picture below is the 3-phase busbars in a section of our new supply switchboard. Each bar is 80mm wide and 10mm high, with two bars paralleled for each phase. A lot of copper to carry a lot of current.

We'll have more photos of the switchboards, which are almost completed, over the next few days.

Below is a list of some of the items we have purchased/are purchasing for DC3.

- 6 x APC air-con units
- switchboard
- 750 kVa skid mounted genset, sound attenuated canopy, with autostart on mains failure, SNMP capable.
- floor stands for air-con units
- electrical materials
- pipe works for air-con units
- raised flooring
- FM 200 fire supression (HFC-227 heptafluoropropane)
- VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus)
- 4 x 200kVa UPS's
- air-con units for UPS room
- power monitoring system

We will soon provide a project timeline so you are able to see when these are being installed in the data centre.

Designed to meet customer power requirements now and well into the future, the facility will provide up to 800 watts per sqm in the technical area from day 1, with the ability to scale to 1500 watts per sqm in the not too distant future.

Two busy days have passed – PIPE have now installed 288 core Dark Fibre through the western side of the building into DC3. We have utilised state of the art Sm@rtcore small tube technology, supplied by the world’s leading manufacturer and deployed by PIPE’s own specialist engineers. PIPE will be providing fully diverse paths from DC3, route 2 is currently advancing through the design phase.

Data Centre 3 Statistics

Area: 450 sqm
Planned Capacity: 170 racks (1100mm)
Air Conditioning: Hot Isle/Cold Isle cooling system
Power Supply: 800 watts p/sqm with a+b power,feed by a dedicted substation supplying 3000kva of power

The facility's resilience will be underpinned by a N+1 standard cooling and power system ensuring a superior operating environment, and once complete will be monitored by the PIPE Networks NOC support team 24x7.