Feeder cable
The big stuff: large-gauge feeders from switchgear to UPS, from UPS to PDUs, and to mechanical equipment. Often 500 kcmil and up, run in tray or conduit. The highest copper density per foot in the building.
COPPER GUIDE
The Tons of Copper Inside Every Data Center.
Feeder cable, busway bars, PDU whips, grounding grids — where the copper hides in a facility, how it is valued, and why it should never ride out in a demo truck unpriced.
THE HIDDEN STREAM
Every data center is tons of copper.
When a facility is decommissioned, everyone talks about the servers and the UPS — and almost everyone forgets the cable plant. Feeder cable, PDU whips, branch circuits, busway copper, grounding grids: thousands of feet of heavy copper that runs through every electrical room and above every rack row. In a large teardown it can be one of the most valuable streams on site.
We buy it all — the cable, the busway, the bus bar, the grounding conductors — priced as what it is, not swept into a demolition bid.
The most common mistake
Letting the cable plant leave in a demolition contractor’s truck, unpriced and unweighed. Price the copper before the demo contract is signed — it changes the economics of the whole project.
What to send
Photos of the cable runs, tray, and busway; jacket markings showing gauge and type; approximate footage or room counts. Our copper wire grades guide shows what the markings mean.
WHERE IT HIDES
Six copper streams in every facility
Busway and bus duct copper
Overhead busway looks like aluminum housing — inside are solid copper bars running the length of every run, plus copper plug-in stabs. Removed in every reconfiguration; frequently scrapped by people who never priced the bars.
PDU whips and branch circuits
Flexible whips from PDUs and RPPs to the racks, plus all the branch circuit wiring. Smaller gauge individually, enormous in aggregate across hundreds of racks.
Grounding grid
Bare copper grounding conductors, ground bars, and bonding jumpers throughout — required by code in every electrical room, and pure high-grade copper when recovered.
Generator and switchgear cabling
Paralleling gear, generator feeders, and control wiring in the power train. Heavy gauge, short runs, excellent recovery.
Abandoned cable
Every facility accumulates dead cable from past reconfigurations — still in the tray, still copper. A proper teardown inventories it instead of burying it.
VALUATION
How cable-plant copper is valued
Three things decide it: gauge and type (jacket markings tell the story — photograph them), condition (clean pulls beat burnt or oil-soaked cable), and quantity (footage estimates or room/rack counts). Insulated copper is priced on its recoverable copper content; bus bar and grounding conductors grade higher as clean copper. We never publish per-pound prices — markets move daily — but we price every lot on what it actually is, and we will explain the grading before you commit.
IDENTIFICATION
Reading jacket markings like a buyer
Every manufactured cable carries its identity printed on the jacket: gauge (AWG or kcmil), conductor count, insulation type (THHN, XHHW, RHW, etc.), voltage rating, and often the footage. A photo of a clear jacket marking is worth more than a paragraph of description — it lets a buyer grade the cable without guessing. Our copper wire grades guide decodes the common markings. When scoping a facility, photograph one clear marking per cable type and count the runs; that is enough for a serious preliminary valuation. Unmarked or illegible cable gets priced conservatively — as mystery metal — so the ten seconds it takes to photograph a clean marking is the highest-paid labor in the teardown.
QUESTIONS
Cable-plant questions, answered.
How much copper is in a data center?
It varies enormously with facility size, but a mid-size facility typically holds thousands of feet of feeder cable plus busway, hundreds of PDU whips, and a full grounding grid — tons of copper in a large teardown. Photograph the electrical rooms and we will scope it.
Do you buy the cable separately from the equipment?
Yes — or together as one lot. Many sellers have us take the UPS, generators, and switchgear as equipment and the cable plant as a metals stream in the same project.
Should the cable be stripped before sale?
No. Sell it as pulled — stripping thousands of feet of cable costs more in labor than it gains. We grade insulated cable on its recoverable content.
What about fiber optic cable?
Fiber has no metals value. Separate it from the copper pulls so the copper stream stays clean — mixed loads get downgraded.
Can you take cable that is still installed?
Start with photos of it installed. Disconnection must be done safely by qualified electricians; we coordinate the sequence as part of the project conversation.
HOW IT WORKS
Three steps to an offer.
01Send photos
Photograph the equipment, nameplates, and quantities in place, then send them through the contact form.
02Material review
We review what the equipment is, its condition and quantity, and how it grades for resale versus recovery.
03Receive an offer
For qualifying material, we discuss a direct purchase offer and the next steps.