Evaporative cooling installation weathers the hottest days of the summer at data centre
Evaporative cooling (sometimes called adiabatic cooling) successfully maintained the required environmental conditions at a site in Surrey of 4D Data Centres on the hottest day of the year — 22 July 2013, with a recorded temperature of 33.5°C at nearby Heathrow. The site at Byfleet has a total of 29 evaporative-cooling units, following the recent installation of a additional 10 units from EcoCooling. The centre has a PUE (power usage efficiency) of 1.14.
Jack Bedell-Pearce, managing director of 4D Data Centres, comments, ‘We are very conscious that data centres gobble electricity, which is both expensive to buy and not an eco-friendly way to operate. So back in autumn 2011, we embarked on replacing our traditional air-con system with greener technology. It has been a strong selling point with many clients who also want to be environmentally responsible.’
He adds, ‘Over the coming months, we will be monitoring, reviewing and tweaking the upgraded cooling system to ensure it works optimally in all conditions.’
The latest units were added ahead of additional load requirements that will be generated as extra rack space is deployed on the data floor.
Other work planned includes updating 4D’s CFD program with new data and modelling minor design modifications, such as vented floor-tile layout, to maximise the efficiency of the EcoCooling units to all the racks.
