Hot Aisle / Cold Aisle Cooling Explained
To achieve the highest levels of efficiency in your data centre or server room it is critical to get the layout of your server racks and cooling right.
Although it might look like most data centres just line up racks because that is the easiest way to fit them in, there is actually a lot more science behind the reason for this configuration and getting it right will lead to huge savings in running costs and improve efficiency.
The easiest way to provide data centre cooling in the most efficient way possible is to segregate hot and cold air using the hot aisle / cold aisle configuration. The hot aisle / cold aisle configuration conserves energy and lowers cooling costs by managing air flow. This is common practice in every data centre and may seem obvious to most people, and although not always adopted it is still just as important in smaller server rooms.
The idea is quite simple, it involves lining up rows of server racks (front to front) so the IT equipments air intake (usually at the front of the device) faces the cold aisle where your air conditioning equipment delivers cold air and the hot air expelled from the device (usually at the rear) faces the rear of the row of server racks next to it (back to back). The hot air exhausted is then returned to the air conditioners return ducts.
This layout eliminates the direct transfer of hot exhaust air from one system into the cold intake air of another system. It is the first step towards achieving the highest levels of data centre efficiency and eliminating dangerous hot spots in your data centre or server room.
We will go on to talk about other cooling methods which compliment the hot aisle / cold aisle configuration and also help to improve efficiency and lower running costs in later blog posts. Keep and eye out for our next posts about Cold / Hot aisle containment systems and In Row cooling.
In the mean time if you would like advice about how to cool your server racks, how to design a new data centre or server room or would like to talk to us about any other data centre infrastructure product please get in touch with a member of our team on Tel: 01252 692559 or email : info@sourceups.co.uk
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