The needs of the IT industry are constantly changing. Total power consumption has increased rapidly in the last decade, and use of high-current high density power distribution has increased the ambient temperature inside the rack enclosure. These changes highlight a weakness in how thermal-magnetic circuit breakers respond to overcurrent situations.

Hydraulic-magnetic is a newer technology, adopted by professional-grade PDUs, in which the circuit breaker’s overcurrent response is not impacted by extreme environmental conditions. ie. a 10A breaker will respond to a 15A overcurrent in the same time whether the ambient temperature is 30 degrees, 60 degrees or 10 degrees [Celsius].

One of the key selling points of Hydraulic-magnetic technology is the ability to deactivate the circuit breaker immediately after activation without waiting for a ‘cooling-off’ period. This enables corrective actions to be performed more quickly, leading to reduced downtime and associated costs.