Just like any other business, a data center strives to minimize the input costs while maximizing on the output. The significant input expenses that data centers incur are high bills spent in controlling temperatures. The data center products emit a lot of heat during operations. This heat can cause significant damage to the data center supplies. However, data centers no longer have to worry about this challenge because of the cold aisle containment system that can significantly tackle this challenge. Here are some of the benefits of using a cold aisle containment system and why most data centers are using them. Bust first, what is a cold aisle containment system?
This data center containment involves cold aisles that are enclosed within the data centers. Each of these cold aisles delivers cold supply air, which is matched to the airflow requirements of each server, with proper controls. The system has physical barriers that can be made from plexiglass, plastic curtains, or solid metal panels. These barriers are added at the top of each of these cold aisles. The barriers are commonly transparent to enable easy visibility of the old aisle which is essential for monitoring purposes. Some of the benefits of cold aisle containment system include:
1. Effective Response in case of Cooling Failure
For a business to run effectively, the data centers are also expected to be running efficiently. A slight failure on the data center can lead to a huge loss for some companies especially the IT-based ones. However, occasional failure should be expected since IT and the associated equipment often tend to experience some hitches. It is due to this reason that most data centers, if not all, have generators and battery backups. With these systems in place, a business can go on as usual, even in case of power outages. Although your business might be having these backup systems in place, some losses may still be incurred in case of outages. Therefore, it is essential to figure out which system to use so that you can be able to minimize such losses. A cold aisle containment system minimizes the failures and also makes the operations more predictable. This is contributed by the features of the system which ensure the separation of exhaust and intake air.
2. Energy Efficiency
Another major benefit of a cold aisle containment system is that it is efficient in terms of the energy used in the data centers. Less energy is used in the cooling process, which consequently leads to huge savings because of the decreased operating cost of the data centers. Most of the businesses have reported a decrease of up to 40% of money spent on cooling energy upon shifting to the cold aisle containment system. As a result, the costs of data storage is continuously becoming affordable. Consequently, 80% of data centers are looking to install hot aisle containment options or cold aisle containment systems to enjoy this benefit.
3. Easy Installation
Regardless of the age of your data center, it’s easy to install these cooling cabinets. Moreover, they easily transform the data center, which makes them prevalent among many data center operators.
4. Cheap Installation Cost
Just like any other installation cost, it’s vital to assess how much you will spend in installing these cabinets. Fortunately, they are very affordable, which adds up to the reason why you have no excuse in not installing the cold aisle containment systems. They are some of the most cost-effective cooling systems available.
5. Possible to Increase Economizer Mode Hours
Unlike other types of traditional cooling systems, the cold aisle containment systems can have the economizer mode increased. This can happen during periods when the outdoor temperatures are below the indoor temperatures. In such a case, the economizer mode turns off the system, thus saving the energy.
6. The cost of Dehumidification/Humidification is Reduced
Using cold aisle containment systems assures you of reduced cost on both humidification and dehumidification. The aisle containment allows the raising of air supply temperatures, thus the system can operate effectively even above the dew point temperature. When the system operates above this temperature, humidity is not drawn from the air which reduces the role of the humidification system which saves on water and energy bills.