The Northern Data Centre project consisted of an upgrade and conversion of an existing 30,000 m2 warehouse building into a data centre facility. The design of this data centre was undertaken without preconceptions and with the aim to radically depart from standard design practice to increase the energy efficiency of the design and build a state-of-the-art data centre while maintaining the quality and reliability of this critical facility.
With this in mind a ground breaking pressure free cooling solution was developed enabling control of the internal environment with minimal use of chillers, thereby greatly reducing CO2 emissions. The system benefits from the low external ambient temperatures – prevalent in the local climate for much of the year – with supplementary cooling taking place during peak ambient conditions.
Features and innovations:
- The design allowed for the complete removal of chillers subject to acceptance of slightly wider operating conditions by the IT equipment suppliers
- The use of direct air cooling requires large volumes of air at low velocity into and out of the data halls. To facilitate this, the data halls were raised on a new structural floor with air plenum below. The ventilation system delivers the supply air into the under croft supply plenum. The design allows for 100 per cent of this airflow to be drawn from external fresh air with the capability of mixing warm return air, cooling and de-humidifying to create the required supply air condition
- The key to the success of project is the design of a low velocity, low pressure system. Under normal conditions, the fans use less than 5 per cent of the total facility load. Further, mechanical cooling is not required to meet industry standard conditions.
Project Details
Services:
Electrical
Mechanical
Market Sector:
Mission Critical
Client: EDS
Location:
London
United Kingdom
