No Jitter is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Chickens Need the Same Power Management As L-Enterprise

Farms, like the factories that we service, and other commercial enterprises, often have varying power requirements that involve three-phase power. The gear is often older, as is the gear in commercial sites. This gear is built to last but like anything else, it's often not the most efficient, at least when it comes to power factor.

In discussing the needs of the chicken lady, several other ideas came to light and here's what I found.

First - Square D is the electricians' Home Depot for solutions. I journeyed into their domain and found that Square D (Schneider Electric) offers numerous power quality products, and their useful web tool is found here.

There's been a lot more discussion about using DC-powered servers and utility power and still, power factor may need correction if the gear or inverters or any rectifiers are in the configuration. Usually, there is a loss and degradation in power factor. So for those involved in data center planning, here's another opportunity to review power performance because incremental improvements -- 5, 10, 15 percent -- weigh heavy and will reap rewards when you apply solutions to compensate for power factor correction or better power management.

Other concepts remain simple and fairly accurate - anytime you convert power (AC - DC or DC - AC) you can expect loss and degradation in power factor. How much isn't as easy to assess unless you have the tools to measure the power along with the know-how. Then, anytime you create heat you create a demand for cooling, and if you add more gear then usually you need more juice and even more cooling. Heat for our discussion is basically waste. Lighting and other machinery/gear creates waste heat and less of it is usually better, unless of course you can devise a method to capture and use waste heat.

Even still, a more important aspect of good power management is doing what we've done before and that is to start with an assessment. So as we gather more information about the lady chicken farmer - she has an equivalent of three football fields of chickens (egg laying types) and a huge utility bill. We know that we must start out first gathering information and fact-finding to ascertain the age and type of her equipment. Then, we must identify areas for improvement and alternative solutions. Then, she must weigh the solutions along with the associated costs and begin to judge the ROI and whether or not the solutions will fit into her budget and identify any potential impact on her operations, I mean chickens.

Power, wherever you use it, can be managed so long as you can measure it and account for it. In the past it's been something that many take for granted - similar to dial tone, especially when it stops working. What changes electrical performance are the transformers and kinds of transformers used in your buildings -another hint at what to examine on your power assessments.

Those chickens have environmental requirements too, and to get the most and best eggs - their needs must be met. What strikes me about the chicken lady is that she is earnestly considering how to decrease her energy costs to remain competitive. Many old school thoughts still apply to energy conservation and efficiency that the old timers used. One example is utilizing space below grade (3 or 4 walls exposed to all earth) for data centers. Basements and lower levels below grade are usually cooler since the earth provides a natural insulation. Another advantage to placing the data center in the basement is closer access to geothermal loops for heating and cooling requirements. I wouldn't expect anyone to move their data center to the lower levels, but for those in the process of building or relocating, you may want to start to think a bit differently about location. For chickens it's a matter of location and comfort. Then, the concrete slab can be an effective tool to help cool those chickens but it must be properly designed for the area covered.

Okay - how to end this one. Why did the chicken cross the "net"? It wanted to get to the other site. Okay, maybe you're not cracked up - so visit this site for more cackles.

Oh - one more thing. How do you attract chicken farmer business? (See below)