Higher power loads due to virtualization and new blade server technology is rapidly driving up power consumption per m2/sq ft in the Data Center. More power consumption implies more heat dissipation per m2/sq ft (as much as 60% to 70% of electrical power consumption is dissipated as heat). Only 28% of cold air input is drawn from the front-face of servers.
The rest goes into the ambience and mixes with hot air. Cold aisle/Hot aisle configuration as known is insufficient to manage new heat dissipation levels: servers demand more cold air ambience and improper separation of both aisles, causes serious overheating of servers in upper part of racks (temp. difference in upper front part of rack can be up to 10.5ºC higher than at lower part).
Rapid growth and improper maintenance of Data Centers causes several problems:
• Improper balance of thermal loads.
• Inadequate distribution of air grills not timizing rack cooling.
• Not properly sealed cable openings and others, cause loss of cold air. The Increase of Power and Data cabling under raised floor causes greater resistance to air flow. Air Conditioning machines dissipate cold air in all plenums without canalizing this expensive and valuable cold air to the right points (air grills) where it should be directed.
Inefficiency of cold air capacity usage and distribution implies hot spots and higher electrical bills. Higher temperatures imply:
• Rapid Hardware degradation.
• Potential temporary auto-shutdown of machines.
• Data Center crash.
• The SMART COLD/HOT CORRIDOR increases the potential life span of the data center, enabling higher density computing.
• Allows higher cold air inlet temperatures and therefore increased net sensible cooling capacities.
• Decreases dramatically the temperature difference between the upper and lower part of the racks, without the need to position higher power consumption equipment at the bottom.
• Increases the maximum cooling capacity of normal cold aisle and hot aisle solutions, as there is no inefficiency due to air recirculation.
• Low-cost solution that can be retrofitted in any existing data center without any downtime. Ready-to-use assembly kit.
• Extremely flexible. The height of the construction is flexible and can be adjusted to any racks´ height and width (maximum height 48U and minimum height 37U). The width can be adapted to any aisle or corridor (full or half full), even if the racks form a corridor against the wall.
• The insulation curtains, made of PVC 3 mm wide transparent, clear stripes, make it easier to adapt to different heights of racks and allows light to go through. The roof is made of GE® Lexan Polycarbonate, which provides excellent clarity, light transmission, durability, and better insulation than glass.
• Compensates the air pressure inside the data center, as its flexible curtain strips will balance out the air pressure acting as an overpressure valve. In case the fire extinguishing system triggers, the flexible curtains will allow the gas to get inside the corridor.
• The roof panels can be ordered with pre-determined holes air condition inlets, smoke detectors, motorized grills or fire extinguishing nozzles.
• Quicker to transport and to install, i.e.: A 10- meter cold aisle can be deployed in 1 day. The construction is very flexible and does not involve the use of heavy machinery inside the data center for the installation. Minimum disruption in the daily data center operation with no downtime.
• Can be used in data centers, which do not have raised floors.
• Vendor neutral, can be adapted to any rack brand.
• Different colors of PVC stripes available to match customer’s design choice.
• The price of the SMART COLD CORRIDOR can be approx. 50-60% cheaper than other competitors´ solutions. Ideal solution for small budgets. The SMART COLD/HOT CORRIDOR effectively improves the efficiency of the air conditioning blowed into the IT racks (cold corridor), which means immediate savings in the operational costs of any data center.
• The adequate separation between hot and cold aisles improves the daily management of the data center, minimizing the energy usage and allowing staff to work in a more pleasant environment.