Data Centre Cooling
BL Group have extended their expertise to provide a range of
specialist products tailored for computer suites and data centre
cooling, using Coldlogik rear door heat exchangers.
The example below demonstrates how we have used this
technology with the NI Water Data Centre.
Whilst looking for a water cooled method of dissipating the
high output from the blade servers within their Data Centre, NI
Water's other performance criteria, included: |
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Space inside the data centre was at
a premium so the solution had to have a very
small footprint |
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Resilience was very important as
server performance was essential 24/7 |
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A water leak inside the data centre
was not acceptable |
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Carbon emissions were to be kept to
a minimum, which would result in reduced running
costs |
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Online monitoring of all aspects of
the plant status and room conditions were
essential |
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The system had to be scalable with
increases to both indoor and outdoor capacity
possible without major disruption |
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| The Coldlogik data cooling system: |
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The solution offered was a
Coldlogik system which utilised rear door heat
exchangers to extract server heat at source.
This is typically about 35°C and allows for high
temperature 18°C cooling water to
be used. The heat exchangers form the rear door
of the rack and take up very little floor
space |
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The system was designed with run
standby pumps, run standby chillers and the
drycooler provided additional standby for over
70% of the year |
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A unique feature of the system was
the use of a venturi arrangement which allowed
cold water to be drawn at negative pressure
through the heat exchangers and indoor
pipework |
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If a leak did occur, air leaked
into the system rather than water out. This air
was collected in the air eliminator and the
system status was updated |
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The use of high temperature water
meant that the chillers would operate more
efficiently in temperatures above 16
°C and the drycoolers using only
fan power provided all of the cooling below
12°C. Running cost savings
compared to a Direct Expansion system were
projected at over 70% |
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| The installation process: |
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A Cylon BMS was used to control
and monitor the system and this had a full
graphic interface tailored to the client's
requirements and accessible over his intranet by
a web browser |
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The initial installation consists
of 10 server racks, chiller and drycooler.
Pipework and flow rates allow for an additional
10 server racks and a second and third chiller
to be added. The drycooler has been selected
for the projected future load and this over
sizing allows reduced running costs with the
current load |
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Practical completion of the project
was ahead of time in August and the system has
operated very efficiently through its first
winter. The sub-zero temperatures experienced
meant that the drycooler was observed operating
with only one of ten fans on low speed for long
periods |
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In this application we have
utilized rear door heat exchangers to extract
blade server heat at source in a densely
populated data centre |
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With flow temperatures of 14-18
°C and return of 18-22°C we
maintain a room condition of 22-24°C |
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These rear doors are effectively
vertical chilled beams but capable of higher
capacities because we are extracting high
temperature heat at 35°C from the
blade servers before it reaches the room |
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The heat is rejected through
drycoolers in temperatures less than 12
°C and by chillers and dry coolers
between 12 and 16°C |
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Above 16°C the chillers
handle the load |
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| Our well trained, dedicated engineers provide the 24/7 cover
that ensures that this and many other business critical
installations across the province experience the absolute
miniumum downtime. |
