Single-phase power has been the standard for years. It is something that you find in households and small businesses as it offers adequate power to meet the needs of the consumer. It is unlikely that the consumer will use more than the given power or require more. However, that is not true with industries and large corporations. Today, this includes datacenters. The needs of a datacenter have grown tremendously over the years as they attempt to remain competitive, provide service to a wide range of clients, and keep everything going. For the most part, three-phase power is the only option for these datacenters.
Single-Phase Power
This is what you will find in most homes. It is what powers the lights, the TV, and everything else connected to an outlet. For these small buildings, it works well. It is unlikely to have any major issues because the power-requirements are not high in most households. You can start to see a problem if using a power-hungry appliance or using a large amount of power at once.
What makes single-phase power unreliable is that it is a single wave. That one wave cycles every 60 seconds, taking it through zero. This is not a problem with households where the power requirements are low, but it becomes a problem with corporations and power-intense industries. Datacenters are one such industry. Unless building a small datacenter, single-phase power may not meet demands. This problem becomes apparent with today’s stacks.
Three-Phase Power
Unlike single-phase power, three-phase power has 3 waves. Those 3 waves are always going, ensuring that your power never hits zero. In power-intense industries, you can consume more without risking outages or problems. This is why major corporations and industries have already adopted it as their preferred power method.
Installing three-phase power is not expensive. It is actually cheaper to install and manage than single-phase power is. With the increased potential and reliability, that affordability makes it the obvious choice for most large corporations weighing their options. It has quickly become the standard for datacenters.
Choosing here is easy. It is all about the power requirements of your datacenter. For any large and growing datacenter, three-phase power is the only viable option. Small datacenters may work with single-phase power, but it is not optimal. It simply cannot meet the demand of this industry nor can it provide the security and reliability that datacenters need when it comes to power.