Cooling
If your energy bills have sky rocketed due to conventional data center cooling strategies, try more modern systems designed by CNS and bring it back down to earth.Designing and engineering modern data center cooling systems, Inrow cooling, free cooling, aisle containment and liquid cooling and following the standards is a big step toward a lower energy bill and ensuring up-time of data centers.
Not too hot or too cold, but just right
First we make sure you’re not running the data center temperature too low or too high. The Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has been tracking recommended and allowable temperatures for different types of data centers since mid-2000, in which time the maximum high-end temperature increased from 24 degrees Celsius to 27°C in 2008 and by 2011,
Right Design
The easiest way to save money is to reduce how many CRAC units are running. A higher-temperature data center matches needs against risk and requires far less cooling; this means fewer CRAC units. In some data centers, half of the CRAC units can be turned off, directly reducing energy and maintenance costs, after number of operational units comes the decision making on cooling options.
Weigh your various data center cooling options
Data centers have options when it comes to a cooling strategy beyond turning the whole room into an artic chill zone.
Data center cooling options, from containment to self-cooled cabinets to outside air, come with their own advantages. To determine which data center cooling methods are worth implementing, various choices need consideration.
Basics
Running standard fixed-rate CRAC units at 100% capacity can build up thermal inertia, another cooling strategy that reduces costs. The data center cools considerably below its target temperature, then the CRAC units are switched off. The data center is then allowed to warm up until it reaches a defined point, and the CRAC units come back on.
Cooling Containment
Cooling containment means separating cool or cold inlet air from hot discharge air. Containment involves erecting barriers — curtains, blanking panels, walls or other designs — to keep the zones separated. The achievable level of cooling containment depends on white space cabinet layout, new facility design and is determined at project planning stages.
Localized Cooling
Source-of-heat coolers include in-row air conditioners, in-row coolers, above- and below-cabinet coolers, self-cooled cabinets, rear-door coolers, immersion cooling tanks and direct liquid cooling.
In-row air conditioners
In-row air conditioners are packaged like equipment cabinets to stand within or at the end of rows. Some units discharge air to the cool aisle, while others direct air toward higher-load cabinets. In-row coolers provide chilled water-, condenser water- and refrigerant-based heat transfer, with and without humidity control.
Self-cooled Cabinets
Self-cooled cabinets are the epitome of closed-loop systems. These cabinets recirculate air within their enclosures, cool via water or refrigerant, and work without supplemental cooling in the room.
Rear-door Coolers
Rear-door coolers are radiators through which chilled water circulates to remove the heat. They replace normal cabinet doors, cooling the hot exhaust air and then discharging it back into the room.
When cooling units operate close to computing equipment, it saves the cost of fans pushing cooled air all the way across the room, under the floor or through ductwork.
Free air cooling
Free air cooling is opted if the air outside a data center is regularly below 27 degrees Celsius, free cooling is possible — directly cooling equipment with filtered outside air, or cooling circulating water by outside air, requiring only pumps and no mechanical refrigeration. Kyoto wheels are one example of a free cooling design.