Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has revealed that it has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as accredited to certify data center storage products for the ENERGY STAR program.

"The data center manufacturers enrolling in the Certification Bodies' (CBs) supervised or witnessed manufacturers' testing laboratory (S/WMTL) programs can now start working with UL to certify their product data," said Thomas Juliano, business development manager, global high tech, UL.

"Manufacturers shall comply with the Version 1.0 ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage specification which will take effect on December 2, 2013. To certify for ENERGY STAR, a product model shall meet the ENERGY STAR specification in effect on its date of manufacture. The date of manufacture is specific to each unit and is the date on which a unit is considered to be completely assembled," added Juliano.

There are a set of eligibility criteria including product types, storage product connectivity, capacity optimizing methods, storage taxonomy, capacity, operational states and many others.

UL stated that it has the most comprehensive scope for ENERGY STAR with EPA-recognized Testing Laboratories around the world that can perform testing and verification services on 42 ENERGY STAR product categories, and is an EPA-recognized CB for 43 products.

In addition to being an ENERGY STAR CB for data center storage products, UL also claims to be a pioneer in developing the world's first safety standard for modular data centers (MDCs). The standard, titled UL Subject 2755 Outline of Investigation (OOI), covers the installation of servers in a MDC. The subject encompasses an array of safety aspects from server installation, power distribution, cooling systems and smoke/fire protection systems which are put together in a MDC as a system. UL is currently seeking to publish UL Standard 2755 as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard and to include UL Standard 2755 in the relevant IEC Standard. The OOI is now referenced in the 2014 National Electrical Code (NEC) as an alternate solution for these products.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved