Data Centre cooling solutions from EDP
10 August 2009
With nearly 20 years experience working within Data Centres and Media Libraries, EDP Europe Limited has built a reputation as a leading solutions provider and distributor of innovative products for the Data Centre environment.
Data Centre cooling is probably the most challenging discipline to get right. It’s well known that cooling is the largest consumer of power within the Data Centre environment and getting it right not only benefits the equipment, but reduces expenditure on power and helps lower your carbon footprint. The key to maintaining the right environmental conditions, avoiding hotspots and maximising efficiency is to fully understand and control airflow.There are several steps that can be taken to increase cooling without the need to add more cooling units. A major step is to reclaim lost cooling capacity by sealing cable openings in the raised-floor. EDP Europe is the EMEA distributor for KoldLok raised-floor grommets, a series of double layered brush grommets that are static dissipative and designed to seal these cable openings.
By sealing the cable openings within the raised-floor, static pressure under the floor is increased, meaning that there is more conditioned air available for cooling your servers. Many existing KoldLok users have already discovered the benefits of installing them: A spokesman for a major U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturer stated “As we have closed cable openings with KoldLok grommets, temperatures have gone down by nearly 10°F and demand on our air handlers has dropped. Where we have implemented KoldLok, we have probably cut bypass airflow in half”.
Once cable openings have been sealed the airflow under the floor can be enhanced further by directing the conditioned air to where it is needed using an air baffle system. EDP distribute the PlenaForm air baffle system which comes in the form of perforated sheets that can be eaisly cut and shaped to surround pipes, cable trays and other obstacles within the plenum. By blocking off areas under the floor where cooling is not required you create corridors of cooling that direct the air to the areas it is most needed.
Another major cause of hotspots within the data centre is warm exhaust air from the rear of the cabinet re-circulating to the front where it can interfere with conditioned air, or be drawn into the cool air intakes of servers. This problem can be easily addressed with the use of blanking panels. In the past these have been metal plates which are expensive and time consuming to fit.
PlenaFill is a quick and easy way to blank off large areas of unused rack space. It is supplied in sheets of 27U that are scored at 1U intervals so that they can be easily reduced down to any required U height.
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