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Energy Efficient Use Of Existing Cooling Power In Data Centers,
With New Installations Or As Installation-Friendly Upgrades For All Brands |
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• Suitable for all manufacturers' racks!
• Optimal cooling capacity utilization! |
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• No need for water connection in the data center!
• Energy cost reduction - save money! |
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The challenge – heat loads
Heat loads in data centers are constantly on the rise.
Thermal management is now often overburdened with trying to effectively remove heat loads. However structural conditions often mean that a change over to a water cooling system cannot be simply or immediately implemented.
Thermal management equipment is therefore often already working at its full capacity, and consequently consumes enormous amounts of energy. Consider also – energy requirements rise logarithmically with capacity! Of course you could always donate more space to servers, i.e. install fewer servers in the rack or put fewer racks in your server room. Needless to say, these options entail both costs and structural restrictions.
The smart way is Knürr CoolFlex®
One future-proof and cost-effective option is to constantly separate the cold air zone from the warm air zone. This “Cold Aisle Containment” ensures that the cold air flowing though the raised floor is channelled through the cabinets.
Special feature: as a result all installed servers are provided with consistant cold air over the entire height of the cabinet.
This containment means that the usual heat mixing on the data center ceiling no longer has any effect on the cold aisle, and hot air short cuts are no longer possible. This significantly improves cooling efficiency, resulting in the reduction of cold air required. This in turn then means that energy costs also fall considerably! |
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The Knürr CoolFlex® principle essentially means a constant separation of cold
zones and warm zones, and incorporates
the following factors:
• Raised floor sealing:
Cable entries in the cabinets can be effectively sealed with Koldlok® brush systems; perforated panels are only used in the
cold zone
• Cabinets sealing with trims and 19” blanking panels
• Customised cold aisle containment using standard components – compatible with all manufacturer cabinets.
Cold aisle containment produces a consistent temperature over the entire height
of the cold aisle. This significantly reduces the
air speed intake, and the air
temperature intake can be increased
(20 - 25°C).
This, of course, has advantages for both the operator and the environment (lower
energy costs for driving fans in the CRAC
equipment, suitable air temperature intake
for servers, more pleasant working conditions).
The higher intake air temperature also allows the inflow water temperature to be
decreased, which results in further energy
savings. Plus, higher inflow temperatures
provide more time for cooling
through free cooling. |
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The Knürr CoolFlex® has two
basic variants:
• Upgrade (with Knürr and all other
racks)
• New installations (package with
racks and other products)
The CoolFlex® Package
features various products and
services:
• Knürr CoolFlex®
• Products for sealing the raised
floor and rack
• On-site measurements
• Solution planning
• Design and construction planning
• On-site installation
• Thermal assessment
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Our experience
“Every data center is different!”
With the Knürr CoolFlex® we provide individual, customised solutions. Using standard Knürr components cost are kept as low as possible.
Energy-saving
Knürr CoolFlex® saves “tonnes” of energy costs, and therefore makes a massive contribution to environmental protection.
In conventional data centers (DCs), high volumes of cold air, which must be below 18°C in places, are blown from the raised floor into the cold aisle. The reason for this is that the cold and warm air in the DC frequently mix (especially when a DC reaches its full capacity). Many DC operators therefore increase the volume flow and reduce the intake air temperature, until the desired temperature is achieved in the cold aisle. This consumes huge amounts of energy. The result: at the bottom of the cold aisle there is a temperature of 16 - 20°C; at the top there is a temperature
of 22 - 30°C. At a DC’s full capacity temperatures above 30°C can often be generated in the cold aisle with the recirculation of the warma ir out of the warm aisle and into the cold aisle.
Air circulation equipment
When Computer Room Air Conditioning units (CRAC) are operated at full load, their efficiency decreases! At a speed of 50% or less, CRAC units can be operated several timesmore energy-efficiently. To date data centers have usually been equipped with n+1 cooling units. However as most CRAC units are bought early in the life of a DC it often makes sense to buy 2n. CRAC units can then be operated at a lower speed, more efficiently. The procurement costs are often amortised quickly, due to the significantly reduced energy costs. Changing the number of CRAC
units from n+1 to 2n not only produces much lower energy costs – it also provides improved redundancy, and therefore reliability for the entire data center.
Emerson Network Power offers a well-tuned and tested total package: Knürr with its server rack platforms and CoolFlex® cold aisle containment; Liebert with regulated air circulation equipment.
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Thermography:
The thermal image camera
takes two
pictures at
the same time and therefore
shows an instantaneous
exposure of the
local thermal situation.
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| Advantages and Solutions |
- Increased cooling capacity to maximise
the use of existing data centers
- Life extension of the conventional
data center by several years
- Cost-effective solution
- Higher Delta T and therefore more
cooling power with thermal management
system airflow remaining constant
- Predictable cooling capacity for each
cold aisle; can be adjusted by modifying
or replacing perforated floor
plinths
- Scalability with the aid of additional
cooling (e.g. water cooling or cooling
with
cooling agent)
- Double doors and sliding doors with
automatic door closers
Service
- Solution consulting, calculation,
simulation
- Easily upgradeable (regardless of
existing server cabinet run)
- Integration into new building (especially
with regard to the cooling
requirements of very varied data
centers)
- Temperature and volume flow
measurement, and on-site
measurements
- Installation
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Top covers
are transparent in the standard option,
so that the room's lighting is
used.
Halogen-free Plexiglas is used
to keep the thermal load as low as
possible.
With more detailed fire prevention
regulations, laminated safety
glass can
be used as required by the
project.
The top covers are easy to remove
for servicing.
Blanking elements close off the areas between racks
with different heights. |
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The cross braces
are used for sealing areas off and
precise positioning, and
also provide
stability as tilt restraint.
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Door systems and
safety/security
Double doors or sliding doors can be
chosen for the front, and close with
automatic
door closers. In the event
of an emergency, the cold aisle can
be quickly exited be
simply pushing
the doors open. The doors can be fitted
with glass or Plexiglas windows.
Early fire detection and extinguishing
Knürr CoolFlex®
does not cause any disadvantages
for
most of the early
fire detection
systems on themarket. On the
contrary!
In conventional DCs the
mixing of cold and warmair can
cause delays in
alarmsystems.
With regard to fire extinguishing,
various systemsmust be
considered
when installing the Knürr
CoolFlex®. |
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