nanog mailing list archives

Re: What is the limit? (was RE: multi-homing fixes)


From: Vadim Antonov <avg () exigengroup com>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 15:52:09 -0700 (PDT)



Actually, talking about water/electricity interaction in refrigerators,
lab equipment, etc, misses the very simple point - a probability of a leak
is proportional (as a good approximation :) to the number of moveable
components (PCBs, connectors, etc) in the system.  In a typical CO it's
tens or hundreds of thousands.

--vadim

PS.     Water is not a good coolant, and even distilled and deionized
        water tends to pick ions from metal parts rather quickly.  Spirits
        are flammable;  CFCs are bad for environment.  There's also an
        issue of toxicity.

        Of course, everything is doable, but what is the cost?
        Off-the-shelf components are all designed for air cooling.
        Switching to liquid cooling means a lot of custom stuff; which is
        expensive and which takes a long time to design and manufacture.

PPS     It is not voltage which matters, it's current :)  Even if leaks do
        not cause shorts the moisture accumulation may corrode parts
        leading to mechanical shorts, it also may cause excessive 
        cross-talk. Sporadically malfunctioning equipment is much worse
        than flat-out burned out.

PPS     Finally, getting your hands wet makes your changes to get killed
        by electricity _much_ higher. 48V won't do you any harm if your
        hands are dry, it may kill if they're wet.


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