PRIMEHOLOD offers services for design, installation and service maintenance data center cooling systems.

A system with application of “hot” and “cold” aisles (up to 6kW load on each server rack)

If the load in DPC is from 3kW to 6kW, a cooling system with “hot” and “cold” aisles is required. Cold air gets via the grids in the installation floor and is directed to the front of the server racks. Two rows of server racks are installed facing each other and form a zone of cold air supply that is called a “cold” aisle. Hot air is output on the back of server racks into an isle that forms a hot air zone – a “hot” aisle.

“Active floor” chilling systems

If it i required to withdraw more than 10-15 kW of heat from each server rack, an “active floor” solution is applied. The main idea of “active floor” cooling is the supply of much bigger controlled airflow (up to 4500 m3/h instead of 800-1000 m3/h from a standard 600 X600 mm grid).

It would not be enough simply to install a ventilator in floor void to provide a guaranteed server racks cooling. It is highly important to arrange the airflow both by pressure and air direction to provide the air supply not only to the top of each rack, but also to its lower part, if such need occurs. Besides a ventilator, an “active floor” panel is equipped by a processor, temperature indicators and turning lamellas. Long operational life is an important characteristic of such system.

The samples of “active floor” implementation for horizontal and vertical flows spread on two zones are shown below.

Schemes of solutions based on an “active floor” approach (15-25 kW on each rack)

The application of “active floor” scheme helps to increase the heat radiation capacity of each rack to 25 kW.

A sample of solution with “active floor” and “cooling basin”.

The advantages of “active floor” solution
• A module system is easily installed into a standard data center installation floor
• Airflow allows using the full rack capacity
• There is no need in hot water of Freon supply in the server racks zone
• Minimal airflow is guaranteed even in case of ventilator breakage
• It is suitable for the existing server and computer rooms
• It can be used locally, if there are only one or two highly loaded racks
• Quick effect from applying such solution
• Electric energy preservation
• Great capabilities for system control

Types of module solutions for DPC cooling

Nowadays a “module data center” term is applied to three types of technological areas, including:
• complex solutions based on “data centers in a box” – Microsoft, HP, Rittal, Google have such solutions;
• module DPC building with a standardized infrastructure, modern analogues of classic stationary platforms with computational resources zoning and a single engineering core – the HP “butterfly” is a sample of such data center;
• “Lego like" energy efficient complex solutions constructed of factory-built modules – BladeRoom, Colt, AST SSD, HP EcoPOD, I/O Anywhere produce such solutions abroad.

Precision conditioners with direct expansion (DX). Freon precision conditioners with remote air-cooled condensers are still rather popular as coolers for small DPC of Tier I or Tier II level according to Uptime Institute classification. The major advantages of Freon conditioners include low capital expenses for equipping data centers with cooling systems, long operation life, and comparatively high reliability. Such type of products is produced by numerous world manufacturers. DX-conditioners is a good choice for small (up to 100 kW) data centers with low requirements to the core processes consistency.

Freon precision conditioners with water cooling of condensers and natural cooling systems based on dry cooling towers help to decrease the yearly electric power consumption approximately by 35%. In summer such equipment can consume slightly more power, as recirculation pumps also operate besides compressors, ventilators and cooling towers. Recirculation pumps provide the circulation of coolant in “conditioner - cooling tower” circuit. However, it is possible to use environmental cold when the outside air temperature gets lower, switch off compressors that consume the biggest part of energy in conditioners.

Cold carrier based precision conditioners. Currently it is the most popular cooling solution for Tier I – Tier IV class data centers. The main idea of this technology is cooling air in a heat-exchange unit by cold carrier circulation cooled in special machines - chillers. The cooling system consists of a chain of elements. Their correct and efficient functioning plays an important role in continuous cooling process, so important for high level DPCs.