Adiabatic free cooling

It’s estimated that by 2020, the IT industry will be the world’s most energy consuming sector. No surprise then, that data centre managers are looking for ways to reduce their overall energy use and PUE, while still maintaining the optimum climate control essential for the smooth, efficient running of their facilities.

To address this problem, manufacturers such as Weatherite Manufacturing have invested heavily in the development of energy efficient cooling solutions. Direct Free Cooling has established itself as a proven way for data centres to reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions. Now Weatherite is set to take Direct Free Cooling one step further with the launch of its new range of Adiabatic Cooling Units at Data Centre World 2014.
The Weatherite Group has been cooling IT critical environments using direct free cooling for over 25 years, and has thousands of cooling units in situ within data centres, comms rooms and telecoms exchanges. The company’s new Adiabatic Direct Free Cooling system takes the cooling process even further- opening up additional opportunities to save on capital equipment expenditure, on -going operational costs and of course energy usage.
The use of free outside air already delivers well-documented, measurable benefits compared to traditional CRAC systems. Free cooling means that mechanical cooling is kept to an absolute minimum, significantly reducing the amount of energy being consumed. The lifetime of cooling equipment is also increased significantly as the condenser fans, compressors, etc., are only required for a few days each year. Consequently service intervals can be extended, which lower on-going maintenance costs.

While outside air can be used for free cooling for the vast majority of the year, there are occasions when the ambient air temperature rises above the recommended level and additional mechanical cooling is required.

With the increased thresholds on temperature and humidity control bands, the additional cooling effect from adiabatic cooling can be used instead of additional mechanical cooling which further reduces carbon emissions, energy usage, power infrastructure costs and running costs. It is a well-established process which has been used to cool data centres for over a decade and is suitable for a wide range of applications.

The new Weatherite system incorporates a proven adiabatic humidifier that draws heat from the air by a natural evaporative process, producing a significant temperature drop, without the need for a mechanical cooling interface. The system also eliminates the potential ingress of airborne contaminants and particulates, by using a highly effective filtration system that can be specified to meet up to EU6 standards.

As a custom-built ‘packaged solution’, the Weatherite Direct Adiabatic Free Cooling range offers additional advantages. Each unit is designed and built within Weatherites’ state-of-the-art UK based manufacturing facility to suit the specific installation- to ensure the right solution is delivered first time. The units are also pre-commissioned and tested before going to site, which saves time and reduces expensive on-site build costs.

Paul Griffiths, technical director of Weatherite Manufacturing, comments: “We have developed this new direct adiabatic solution due to the changing requirements in this sector and have utilised an established evaporative adiabatic cooling module, direct drive EC speed controlled fans and software control strategy to ensure safe and efficient unit operation. It offers data centre managers an energy efficient option that delivers all the benefits of modulating direct free cooling, while also removing the need for ‘top -up’ mechanical cooling- reducing life time operational costs.”