One of the biggest concerns of a Data Center Manager is to make sure the equipment doesn’t overheat. When a server overheats, several serious reactions take place which are usually irreversible. The heat generated from multiple servers is significant, and once the temperature around the server node enters the 30-35°C range and stays that way for longer than a few minutes, the first thing to blow is the Central Processing Unit (CPU). This means a complete meltdown for your entire rack. While this is the most obvious repercussion of not maintaining a chilled ambient air system, some of the repercussions of having a server overheat are not discovered for several months. Even if you replace the delicate CPU in the rack, the memory, motherboard, and power supply were all exposed to such extreme heat that the equipment is weakened and will inevitably fail much sooner down the road.
As technology advances in the data center, it is not space that is required, it is more power. With more power comes more heat and a need for an advanced cooling infrastructure. Recent innovations in the data center have met this challenge with the Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle design (see below).
(image property of Liebert Corporation)
The Contained Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle is a directional cooling system for your racks. Supplying cold air through ventilation in the floor focuses the direction of the cool air into your cabinet and around each rack unit. The fans assist the cool air into all the important, intricate places to maintain a consistently cool temperature. Likewise, the momentum of the internal fans pushes the warm air out of the rack unit behind the equipment into the ‘warm aisle’.
(Image taken from Onward and Upward)
In recent years the hot aisle/cold aisle concept has developed to further contain and separate the hot and cold air. Beyond fanning cool air into the cabinets, the warm air is now pushed into a sealed compartment and directed away from the equipment. This controlled approach is more efficient in terms of the power consumed by the chillers; however, in terms of building the infrastructure, it is more expensive than the original design.
Contact us to learn more about efficient data center design and to tour one of our data centers to see the hot aisle/cold aisle concept in action!