Environmental effects can severely impact data center equipment. Excessive heat buildup damages servers, causing them to shut down automatically. Regularly operating them at higher-than-acceptable temperatures shortens their life span and leads to more frequent replacement.
Goto Chengyue to know more.
It's not just high temperatures that are a danger. High humidity leads to condensation, corrosion and contaminant buildup, such as dust, gathering on equipment in a data center. Meanwhile, low humidity leads to electrostatic discharges between two objects that damage equipment, too.
A properly calibrated cooling system can prevent these issues and keep your data center at the correct temperature and humidity 24/7. It ultimately reduces operational risk from damaged equipment.
Here's how your organization can determine what cooling standards the data center needs.
To calculate your data center cooling needs, you need several pieces of data: the total heat output of equipment, floor area in square feet (ft2), facility design and electrical system power rating.
One thing to remember is that some older equipment might have been designed to older ASHRAE cooling standards. If your data center has a mix of equipment, you must figure out an acceptable temperature and humidity range for all the equipment in your facility.
Here's a general calculation you can start with to get a baseline British thermal unit (Btu) cooling size:
(Room square footage x 20) + (IT equipment watt usage x 3.14) + (Active people in the room x 400)
But this is just a starting point. If you want a more accurate estimate and plan for your facility's future cooling needs, keep reading.
Heat can be expressed using various measures, including British thermal units, tons (t) and watts (W). If your equipment uses multiple units, you must convert them to a common format for comparison.
Here's a quick unit conversion chart:
To convert... Multiply by... British thermal units/hour into watts 0. Watts into British thermal units/hour 3. Tons into watts 3,516. Watts into tons 0.Generally speaking, the power consumed by an IT device is nearly all converted into heat, while the power sent through data lines is negligible. That means the thermal output of the device in watts is equal to its power consumption.
Because some devices generate heat differently than the general rule of "their power consumption equals their heat output," you must calculate them separately:
Once you've gathered all the requisite data, you can simply add them up to determine your total cooling requirements for the data center.
If you're using British thermal units as your base unit, you must divide your total by 3,412. to determine the total cooling required in kilowatts (kW).
Beyond the special environmental factors mentioned previously, a few other factors can influence a data center's heat output calculations. Ignoring them could lead to an incorrectly sized cooling system and increase your overall cooling investment.
HVAC systems are often designed to control humidity and remove heat. Ideally, they keep a constant humidity level, yet the air-cooling function often creates substantial condensation and a loss of humidity. This being the case, many data centers use supplemental humidification equipment to make up for this loss, adding more heat.
Large data centers with significant air mixing -- the mixing of hot and cold air from areas inside the facility -- generally need supplemental humidification. The cooling system must help compensate for the movement of the hotter air in the facility. As a result, these data centers must oversize their cooling systems by up to 30%.
Condensation isn't always an issue in smaller data centers or wiring closets, so the cooling system might be able to handle humidification on its own through the regular return ducting already in place. The return ducts eliminate the risk of condensation by design so the HVAC system can operate at 100% cooling capacity.
A data center's cooling needs can change over time, so you should consider oversizing your cooling system for future growth. Oversizing also has the benefits of being used for redundancy if part of the cooling system fails at some point or if you must take part of it down for maintenance. Generally speaking, HVAC consultants recommend adding as much redundancy as your budget allows or at least one more unit than your calculations say you need.
HVAC consultants typically multiply the heat output of all IT equipment by 1.5 to enable future expansion.
Here are a couple of sample cooling calculations using various standard metrics.
Assume the following sample information for a typical data center.
Item Calculation Total Floor area 3,000 ft2 (3,000 x 20) 60,000 Btu or 17.6 kW Servers and racks 150 racks with 8 servers each (150 x 8) 1,200 servers Server power consumption 625 W each (1,200 x 625) 750 kW UPS with battery power consumption Maximum capacity of 1,755 Btu/hour0.5 kW
(1 kW = 3,412. Btu/hr, so 1,755 / 3,412. = 0.5 kW) Lighting (15,000 W x 4.25) / 3,412. 63,750 Btu or 18.7 kW Windows 2,500 ft2 of windows (2,500 x 60 Btu/hour) 150,000 Btu/hour or 44 kW People A maximum of 50 employees in the data center at any given time (50 x 400 Btu/hour) 5.9 kW Grand total 17.6 + 750 + 0.5 + 18.7 + 44 + 5.9 836.7 kW of max coolingBecause most HVAC systems are sized in tons, we can use the standard conversion equations (W x 3. = Btu/hour) and (Btu/hour / 12,000 = t of cooling):
Here's a visual of how that breaks down among components, systems, people and more.
This chart shows the percentage of heat output in the example data center above.
In this example data center, the UPS system generates so little heat, even at maximum use, that it's not even 1% of the total heat output. The rest of the IT equipment generates most of it.
In this example, there's a small server room, data closet or mini edge data center that might be found in a generic office tower in a large city. These calculations can help determine your cooling requirements in watts, and any power system rating in kilovolt-ampere (kVA) can be roughly considered the same as the total power output of the device.
Item Heat calculation Output subtotalGeneral IT equipment:
Converting these into tons of cooling requires using the standard conversion equations (W x 3. = Btu/hour) and (Btu/hour / 12,000 = t of cooling), so the space needs a total of the following:
To determine the future cooling needs of this data closet, multiply the total IT heat output by 1.5, so 12,036 W x 1.5 = 18,054 W. Adding this new number to the existing ones gives us a future total cooling requirement of 39,601.4 W or 11.3 t of cooling. That's nearly a 20% increase.
As the modern data center changes and evolves from the large, centralized data center of a decade ago to the small, nimble edge computing data center many enterprises are building today, cooling requirements often remain the same. Concentrating that much technology in a single location requires planning an adequate cooling strategy that works for today and into the near future.
Data center cooling requirements are affected by this and more, such as the increased density of the racks, technology deployments in the facility and number of staff working there. Having a better understanding of what affects cooling can make any data center professional more knowledgeable about designing the right cooling plan for the organization's needs.
Editor's note: This article was written in . It was updated in to improve the reader experience.
Julia Borgini is a freelance technical copywriter and content marketing strategist who helps B2B technology companies publish valuable content.
Jacob Roundy is a freelance writer and editor, specializing in a variety of technology topics, including data centers and sustainability.
Heat generation is a normal side-effect of running any electrical equipment, including data center equipment. However, data centers hold your critical information, and a buildup of heat can cause irreparable damage to your servers. They may shut down if temperatures climb too high, and regularly operating under the strain of elevated temperatures can shorten the life of your equipment.
A related problem is high humidity. If the humidity level is too low, it can result in electrostatic discharge &#; a sudden flow of electricity between two objects that can damage equipment. If the humidity level rises too high, it can cause condensation and corrosion of your equipment. Dust and debris are more likely to gather on your machinery in high humidity.
You can mitigate these risks by abiding by data center cooling requirements, which you can accomplish using data center cooling solutions.
For more precision ac for server roominformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) publishes guidelines for safe data center temperatures. The most recent recommendation for most classes of information technology (IT) equipment is a temperature between 18 and 27 degrees Celsius (°C) or 64 and 81 degrees Fahrenheit (°F), a dew point (DP) of -9˚C DP to 15˚C DP and a relative humidity (RH) of 60 percent. Those recommendations apply to equipment in the ASHRAE categories of A1 to A4.
ASHRAE also provides specific recommendations for its various classes of equipment. These recommendations apply when the equipment is powered on and applies to IT rather than power equipment.
ASHRAE had recommended a narrower temperature range in previous versions of its guidelines. The recommendations primarily considered keeping data centers operational regardless of energy costs. As conserving energy became more widespread in data centers, ASHRAE published classes that allowed a wider temperature range.
Some older equipment may be designed to older versions of the ASHRAE standard. When a data center has a mix of older and newer equipment, it can be more challenging to figure out which recommendations to use. Finding a temperature and humidity range that works for all equipment is essential to ensure longevity and continuity.
Once you decide on an ideal temperature range, you need to quantify the heat output of your system so that you can figure out how much cooling capacity you need. To do this, you estimate the heat output from all IT equipment and other heat sources in your data center. This information will tell you how much cooling power you need.
Determining this will help you choose a cooling system that can reliably meet your needs while avoiding overspending on the capacity you don&#;t need. Using the method described below, anyone can calculate a data center&#;s cooling needs to help protect its equipment and data. Here&#;s how to calculate cooling requirements for your data center.
There are various measures used to express heat &#; British thermal units (BTU), tons, calories and joules. Heat output can be measured using BTU per hour, tons per day and joules per second, which is equal to watts.
Having many different measures to express heat and heat output can cause confusion, especially if multiple measurement units are used together. There&#;s a movement toward making the watt the standard way to measure heat output. BTU and tons are phasing out.
You may still have some data that uses other measurements. Converting data into a single format is essential if you have more than one unit. You can convert them to the standard of the watt, or you may want to convert them into whichever measurement is most common in your data. Here&#;s how to make some conversions you may need:
Almost all the power your AC power mains consume turns into heat. The power moving through your data lines is comparatively insignificant, which means a piece of equipment&#;s thermal output in watts equals the unit&#;s power consumption. Sometimes, data sheets also provide heat output in BTU per hour, but you only need to use one of these numbers in your calculations, and watts are often easier.
One exception to this rule is voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) routers. As much as one-third of the power these routers consume may be sent to remote terminals, causing their output to be lower than the power they consume. The difference between the heat output and power of VoIP routers is typically not enough to make a significant difference in your calculation. Still, you can include it if you want a more precise outcome.
To calculate your data center&#;s total heat output, add the heat outputs of all the system&#;s components, including the IT equipment, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, power distribution systems and air conditioning units. It also includes lighting and people. You can use some simple rules to ascertain the heat output of these components.
The heat output of UPS and power distribution systems consists of a fixed loss and a loss proportional to operating power. These losses are relatively consistent across all brands and models of this type of equipment. You can also use standard values for the heat output of lighting and values. These values are estimates, but they&#;re consistent enough that they won&#;t cause significant errors in your cooling requirement calculations.
The fans and compressors in air conditioning units create a substantial amount of heat, which is released into the outdoors rather than the data center. Because of this, air conditioners don&#;t add to the thermal load of the data center. The heat they produce does, however, impact their efficiency. You should account for this loss in efficiency when sizing your air conditioner.
The other pieces of data you&#;ll need to calculate the cooling load are the floor area of the center in square feet and the rated electrical system power.
You can conduct an in-depth thermal analysis to determine the exact thermal output of every component in your data center. Still, a quick estimate using the standards listed above is all you need to calculate your data center or server room temperature requirements. The result using the estimate will fall within the typical margin of error of a more detailed analysis. Also, the fact that anyone can conduct the calculation using the estimates without special training is an advantage.
Start with the following calculations to determine your data center&#;s total heat output:
Next, add up the subtotals from the calculations listed above. This will give you your room or facility&#;s total heat source output.
Until now, we haven&#;t considered the possibility of heat from sources outside the data center, such as sunlight through windows and heat conducted in through outside walls. This isn&#;t an issue for many small data centers and server rooms, as many of them have no windows or outside walls. Some small data centers, however, do have these things. Larger data centers typically have windows, walls and a roof exposed to the outside, allowing in additional heat.
If a significant portion of the walls or ceiling of your data center or room is exposed to the outdoors or has a substantial number of windows, consult an HVAC consultant. An HVAC professional can assess the maximum thermal load of the room. Add the load determined by the HVAC consultant to the total heat output you calculated earlier.
You&#;ll also need to consider supplemental humidification when calculating your cooling requirements. Air conditioner systems control humidity in addition to removing heat. In an ideal situation, the system would keep the water in the air constant, eliminating the need for additional humidification.
However, most air conditioner systems have an air cooling function that results in significant condensation, decreasing humidity. It&#;s best to use supplemental humidification equipment to compensate for this humidity loss. This humidification equipment adds more heat load, which you&#;ll need to compensate for by increasing the capacity of your cooling equipment.
Under some conditions, though, the air conditioning system might not cause any condensation. In many wiring closets and small data rooms, the air conditioning system uses ducting to separate the bulk return air from the bulk supply air. In this setup, no condensation forms, and you don&#;t need additional humidification. Instead, the air conditioning unit can operate at 100 percent capacity.
In a large data center with lots of air mixing, the air condition system must provide air at lower temperatures to compensate for the recirculation of the higher-temperature exhaust air. This causes significant dehumidification and the need for supplemental humidification, which leads to the air conditioning system&#;s performance to decrease. To accommodate for this, you need to oversize your air conditioning system by up to 30 percent.
So, if you have a small system with ducted air return, you likely do not need to account for humidity. If you have a larger system that mixes the air, you may need to oversize your air conditioning system by up to 30 percent.
You&#;ll also need to supplement your cooling system by adding additional capacity to account for potential equipment failures and load growth.
No piece of equipment is infallible, and eventually, some of your cooling equipment will fail. You can&#;t afford to let the temperature in your data center increase due to a technical issue with an air conditioning unit. You will need to take each cooling unit offline for maintenance periodically.
You can plan for these needs by adding redundant capacity to your cooling system. The rule of thumb is to add as much redundant capacity as possible. You should have at least n+1 redundancy, which means you have one additional unit over the minimum requirements.
You should also add extra capacity to accommodate potential future load growth. The amount of data that companies generate is expanding rapidly, and demand for data storage is growing with it. Oversizing your cooling capacity ahead of time will enable you to meet increasing demand more readily and expand more quickly in the future. The amount of oversizing you should add for potential growth depends on the forecasts for your data center.
Once you determine your cooling requirements by considering all of the factors listed above, you can accurately size an air conditioning system. These factors are:
Once you have all the above numbers relevant to your data center, simply add them up. The result is the cooling capacity you need for your data center. The cooling capacity required is often about 1.3 times the expected IT load alongside any redundant capacity, especially for smaller server rooms. The cooling load you calculate may differ from this though, especially if you operate a larger data center.
Calculating your cooling requirements is essential, but there are additional signs that indicate your data center is running at higher than advisable temperatures. The following signs could mean you need to optimize your data cooling:
You can use many data center cooling systems to maintain a proper temperature in your data center. The best products for you will depend on your cooling load, the setup of your facility and other factors. Some of the cooling technologies you can choose from are:
EXPLORE COOLING SYSTEMS
Properly calculating your cooling requirements is crucial to your data center equipments reliable, cost-effective operation. Excessive heat and humidity can cause equipment to shut down and reduce its overall lifespan. Using a fairly simple process without specialized training or knowledge, you can calculate heat load in a room or data center. You must account for your equipment&#;s cooling load, building-related heat sources, lighting, people, humidification effects, redundancy and potential future growth.
Working with data center experts like those at DataSpan is another smart strategy for ensuring optimal cooling of your data center. We offer the latest cooling technologies and can also help you to design, install and maintain your cooling system. We&#;ll work around your schedule to complete installations and maintenance in a way that minimizes disruptions to your operations. Working with the experts at DataSpan is a sure way to make certain you end up with an optimized, efficient and reliable system.
At DataSpan, we deliver customized cooling solutions to meet your company&#;s unique goals. Want to learn more about how we can help you to optimize your data center cooling? Contact us for more information and start optimizing your cooling system today!
SHARE
If you want to learn more, please visit our website precision air conditioner solution provider.