Springtime brings sunny weather and cleanup tasks! Our backup power generator comes equipped with a 5000 gallon, double walled fuel tank. We can run for almost a week on our own power source with this capacity. While fairly mundane in appearance (beyond of course being HUGE) it actually is a fairly high-tech bit of equipment. It has sensors that provide us feedback concerning fuel quality, quantity, and rate of consumption while the generator is running. It also provides data on water percentage in the fuel. Diesel fuel is basically oil, and oil and water as we all learned in grade school science class, do not mix. Large metal containers condense water from the atmosphere, both inside and out due to normal temperature and humidity changes. Diesel engines all have water separation equipment built into their fuel systems. Rudolf Diesel's invention is a compression engine meaning that unlike a gasoline engine it does not use spark plugs to ignite a fuel/air mixture; instead it compresses the mixture at such a high ratio that it heats up to an ignition point on its own. Unlike a fuel/air mixture, water does not lend itself to compression, so it must be removed from the fuel prior to injection into the compression cylinders.

The fuel monitoring system for our storage tank had an alarm go off last week. It signaled a interstitial leak. This indicates that there could be a possible leak of the main tank into the interior space between it and the outer tank.

Kevin Teker, our Facilities Manager responded by going into the interstitial space with testing equipment to see what was setting off the fluid sensor.

Above: The fluid sensor removed from the fuel tank.

Above: The high-tech method of getting the chemical testing paste to the lower reaches of the tank... a tape ruler.

Using special pastes which change color based on contact with either water or fuel, Kevin was able to determine that the "leak" was not in fact a leak, but instead water that had condensed within the interstitial space between the two tanks. Once satisfied that our primary tank's integrity was sound the next step was to remove the water. How does one drain less than a pint of water from a tank that weighs 50,000 pounds and only has openings at the top?

We solved that problem by lowering absorbent materials attached to that high-tech reach tool pictured above. Once the water was removed, we replaced the sensor and it indicated a dry interstitial space once again.

This is just one small example of the little things we do every day to maintain our facility. Every colocation provider has a facility to maintain, and we know that you choose digital.forest for our excellent service AND our facility. I hope that you see and recognize both every day, in the form of your servers' uptime, and when you have interaction with the Tech Support and Customer Service staff. The facility though is in many ways invisible to most of our clients, so it is nice to highlight things when they present themselves and allow you a glimpse into daily operations.

Regards,
Chuck Goolsbee
VP, Technical Operations
digital.forest