Hot Spot Challenge
Do you know where you are wasting energy in your datacentre?
Jeremy Hartley and his team have years of experience designing and installing enclosures and they are familiar with the issues faced by managers in legacy datacentres.
To help datacentre managers to see for themselves how well their existing cooling is working and how it can be improved, eCool Solutions is offering a free thermal analysis of the datacentre. For many organisations this has revealed stagnant air, hot spots and excessive hot and cold temperatures – all of this can be improved without a major investment and the energy saved will provide a ROI in weeks.
Thermal analysis of Central London datacentre
Findings | Common problems | Recommendations | The solution | Benefits
Objective: Identify Issues Giving Rise To Hot Spots And High Aisle Temperatures
Findings:
- Above recommended temperatures in all aisles
- Power wasted through inefficient use of chilled air
- Stagnant hot air resulting from poor hot air return
- Extensive by-pass air through racks and around rack ends
- Blocked hot air exhaust
- Vented tiles in wrong places
Common problems
Download an illustrated guide to the common problems | 613KB
- Too hot – hot aisle temperatures up to 48.8°C
- Too hot – cold aisle temperatures range from 15.1 to 34.7°C
- Extensive by-pass air – empty U space allows hot air to pass into cold aisle
- No control on cut outs - empty rack and no by-pass air control on cable cut out, cold air escaping to hot aisle
- Badly located CRAC units – CRAC units located on other side of partition
- Vented tiles in the wrong place - wasted vented tile in open area
Recommendations
- Fit by-pass air control panels in unused space
- Close cold aisle ends with curtains or doors
- Close top of cold aisle with roof panels
- Close tile cable cut outs to prevent by-pass air
- Reposition vented tiles and balance air flow
- Improve cable management
- Reposition clusters of high heat output devices
The solution
Before – vast temperature
difference from 17°C to 40°C
After – cooler more
consistent temperature provides better
control
Benefits
- Save power by increasing inlet temperature of cold air
- Increase free chiller cooling
- Reduce hardware failure
- Gain 1 hour cold aisle containment if CRAC fails
- Cut need for humidifiers
- Eliminate by-pass air recirculation
- Achieve compliance to TIA 942 and ASHRAE
- Reduce CO2 footprint
- Cold aisle temperatures range from 15.1 to 34.7˚C
