Keeping electronic equipment at a comfortable temperature may be a costly and energy-intensive undertaking. When it comes to the cooling systems in data centers, one of the primary problems that must be met is to minimize the amount of power consumption while simultaneously avoiding the dangers of the servers overheating. Air conditioning systems that are considered standard can account for as much as forty percent of the total power usage in a data center. When choosing the appropriate data center cooling system(s) for your requirements, as a designer, you will need to take into account the cooling of the area, the rejection of heat, and the conditioning of the fluid.
The examples of data center cooling systems choices can be seen below.
Raised Floor Systems
Raised floor systems, which are the most typical solution for data center cooling, are excellent for rooms that have a low density of information technology (IT) equipment.
The elevated platforms' perforated tiles allow chilled air to be delivered to the servers via a computer room air conditioner (AC) or air handler (AH). After being used to chill the servers, the air is recycled and used to cool either the AC or the AH.
Cold Aisle/Hot Aisle Containment
The server racks in a data center are typically organized in alternating rows of "cold aisles" and "hot aisles" to prevent the cooled intake air from mingling with the heated exhaust air.
The hot exhaust from the server is separated and sent to the computer room's air conditioning equipment. In-row cooling units are frequently positioned within a row of racks so that cooled air may be swiftly delivered to the information technology equipment. In-row cooling produces a closed-loop configuration to concentrate cooled air on the apparatus when it is used in conjunction with cold air containment systems.
Chilled Water Systems
The majority of medium-sized and larger data centers rely on a system that uses chilled water to cool their information technology (IT) equipment.
In this configuration, water that has been chilled travels via coils before entering a chiller that is linked to air handlers in the computer room. When the water eventually makes its way back to the chiller, it is combined with the condenser water that is currently passing through a cooling tower. However, to use this particular sort of technology, data centers must first establish a chiller plant on their premises.
Free Cooling
Some data centers draw in cool air from outside to keep the air surrounding their servers at a lower temperature. It is an efficient approach to reduce one's reliance on mechanical refrigeration and may result in significant energy savings, especially in locations that are cold and dry.
The air from outside is filtered, humidified, and then led into the data center so that the temperature of the electronic equipment may be kept at an appropriate level. Another method is to utilize water-side economizers to cool the room air or rear-door heat exchangers to directly liquid-cool the IT equipment cabinets. Both of these methods are examples of alternative approaches.
Evaporative Cooling
In contrast to its counterparts that use chilled water, adiabatic systems, which depend on the cooling capabilities of evaporation, require a lower volume of water. This cooling system draws heat from the surrounding environment in a targeted manner. The air is then cooled by going through a moist filter after it has been exposed to the fresh air outside. This cooled air, in turn, causes a large reduction in the amount of energy that is required for the system to perform mechanical cooling.