Steve> Please bear with me, I'm not an electrician.
Better start learning now! The more you know, the better your new data center will be.
Steve> We are constructing a new data center and we are standardizing Steve> our racks and the power feeding them. We plan to move some Steve> netapp hardware to the new data center, which is currently Steve> installed in netapp cabinets where each cabinet is powered by 4 Steve> 240V 30 amp circuits.
Steve> The racks in the new data center will be powered by 6 120V 20 Steve> amp circuits each. That is less power than we have in our Steve> netapp cabinets, but we can simply put less equipment in the Steve> new racks if necessary.
You're doing it wrong IMHO, you should be moving all your gear to 240V power, because the power factor will be better and you'll spend less money on power, you'll spend less money on wiring (and with the cost of copper these days...) and you'll be able to put more equipment in a smaller footprint, which will help you save on cooling and other overhead costs.
I strongly urge you that you go back and re-think this, and you should be able to convince them to move to all 240V just from the savings in power costs.
It's more efficient, your UPS will be better able to handle the load, etc. It's amazing how quickly the savings can add up, esp if you have high power costs.
John John Stoffel - Senior Staff Systems Administrator - System LSI Group Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. - http://www.toshiba.com/taec john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com - 508-486-1087