News
Through the launch of a new load bank for data centres, Rentaload meets three challenges: minimising clutter, whilst maximising performance & optimising ergonomics
February 2014 by Marc Jacob
After 15 months of research and development, the innovative French company Rentaload, launches a new rackable load bank, specifically designed for tests of data centres. “Securing redundant electric systems (UPS, diesel generator) and ensuring accurate levels of ventilation is of critical importance when dealing with data centres” says Emmanuel Bour, project manager at Rentaload. “We identified a gap in the market - the need for specific equipment that installers and engineering firms could use to test server rooms before release” states Bour. He goes on to add that “the importance of testing can be drawn from the fact that every data centre suffers from a total power failure at least once a year on average, for around 90 minutes”.
Rentaload specialises in the rental of load banks and has designed new equipment to very specific and precise specifications: enabling the testing of a data centre in extreme conditions, by simulating as accurately as possible the power capacity of the server and IT equipment.
The result: a new rackable load bank in a 19 inch bay with specifications and characteristics that are unique to the market:
• Compact : 7 kW in 5U, 60 cm long & 13 kgs:
• Precise : 0,5 kW of load variation up to 7kW
• Ergonomic : no need for tools to mount (magnet), easy handling, leather handle
• Secure : temperature alarm > 50°C
The results achieved are all the more impressive considering that the project to develop the load bank was completed in less than 20 months, lead by a young researcher, Emmanuel Bour, not yet 30 years old from one of France’s top Business Schools, HEC. By his own account, Bour “did not realize how relevant this load bank was for this type of use”. He applied great ideas and method to produce a very applicable product for the market.
“I had never carried out a market study to that extent” said Emmanuel Bour. Fifteen months of constant research, dozens of site meetings with engineers, installers and users, over ten days of testing in real conditions, hundreds of hours studying products linked to load banks (inverters, diesel generators, ventilations, batteries, etc.), 23 prototype versions and real time tests with some important clients (Schneider Electric IT, etc…), allowed Rentaload’s R&D team to create a final product that exactly met the needs for acceptance testing and test protocol:
• Allowing testing in server room bays
• Minimal space required : single phased 7kW in 5U, stacked on mobile trolleys
• User friendly and extremely mobile : reduced weight (25% less than the offering from our competitors), flexible leather handle, unit attached by magnets, safety light for alerts (>50°C), connecting wires identical to the servers (C19-C20)
• Stored by module of sets of three banks on a wheel-based trolley to ensure ease of transportation and optimised setting up
• Available in two versions : single-phased 7kW, triple-phased 11kW
• A rentable product for greater flexibility
• Assistance provided for tests via the website www.rentaload.com
The first Rentaload banks in beta version were delivered and loaded at several client sites in November 2013 and the active marketing of the product commenced in early January 2014.
"The first line of our specifications contained two words : ergonomy & efficiency… we think we’ve succeeded in ensuring that the end product has met both those descriptions” concludes Emmanuel Bour.
