In our new (3 years old) Health and Bioscience building there are 2
generators, one life safety required by the building code and the other an
emergency generator for key science experiments, the animal care facility,
(required by law),low temperature freezers, nor ups, fume hoods etc.
Dr. Jack Martin Miller
Special Advisor on Buildings and Space,
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry,
Brock University,
St. Catharines, Ontario,
Canada, L2S 3A1.
Phone 905 688 5550, ext 3789;
Fax 905 684 2277.
On 11/24/15 12:26 PM, "Dr. Gerd Gemmecker" <Gerd.Gemmecker_at_tum.de> wrote:
>Dear colleagues,
>
>here at TUM we are in the fortunate situation that we are currently
>building a new NMR center,
>which will upon completion house all (well, most) of our high-field NMR
>machines, as well as
>biochemistry labs and offices. However, the question of backup power for
>that building is still open.
>
>In the old department building (where the pumped 750 MHz and 900 MHz
>magnets are housed), there is a
>campus-wide emergency net which is normally connected to the power grid,
>like the normal power network.
>When grid power fails, it is separated from the grid and a couple of
>Diesel generators are supposed to
>jump in within > 1 min (actually it will take longer, since the
>departments have to be switched over to
>the emergency grid oneby one, to avoid overload). In the past there were
>a few problems (Diesels not starting,
>switching problems) which have been adressed and hopefully fixed in the
>meantime.
>
>For our new building, we were told that a connection to the emergency
>grid is not possible, since its capacity
>is almost exhausted and it will therefore be limited to cases where human
>lifes are endangered by power failures.
>Our pumped magnets and (in the near future) also a 1.2 MHz AEON magnet
>with pumps AND helium recycler do not
>qualify ...
>
>
>As a compromise, we will get a big UPS that could support several magnet
>pumps plus 2-3 deep temp. freezers
>(in the biochemistry labs) for up to 4 hrs.
>
>In the past power failures were usually short (split-second up to few
>minutes), although a remember one or
>two blackouts that lasted 1-2 hrs. (involving major damage to critical
>transformers / switches that could not
>be repaired or bypassed immediately). With nuclear / coal fired power
>plants being phased out and replaced by
>natural sources (or electricity imports ...), the future stability and
>reliability of the general power grid
>is at least open to discussion.
>
>We are a bit worried about the small, but non-zero chance that a power
>failure might last longer than 1-2 hrs.,
>the UPS runs empty and the vacuum pumps will stop. I don't know exactly
>how long a 950 MHz or 1.2 GHz magnet
>can survive without vacuum pumps before it quenches, but I am not keen to
>find out.
>
>So my question is (finally!):
>
>- if you have sensititive equipment like pumped magnets operating at 2 K,
>deep temperature devices etc.
> that will not just stop, but get seriously damaged upon a longer power
>outage
>
>- what kind of backup do you have? UPS, generators, ...? For how long can
>they take over?
> who is operating them (you? your institute / department? the
>university / company?)
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Gerd
>
>
>--
>PD Dr. Gerd Gemmecker
>Bayerisches NMR-Zentrum
>Dept. Chemie, TU München
>Lichtenbergstr. 4
>D-85747 Garching
>Germany
>
>Raum/Room 32 109
>Tel. +49 (89) 289-13308
>Fax +49 (89) 289-13869
>e-mail: Gerd.Gemmecker_at_ch.tum.de
>Internet: http://www.gemmecker.de
>
Received on Tue Nov 24 2015 - 09:57:39 MST