Main DC BerlinerLuft. Air conditioning units for Hyperscale data centre
Project of superlatives
With the new Main DC data centre, one of the most advanced service data centres in Germany has been built on a floor space of 4,500 m² over 5 storeys. The three buildings cover an area of 22,000 m2 Data rooms for server cabinets, offering space for approx. 3,000 racks with 42 vertical units (HE) each. The IT load alone is 55 megawatts and the required cooling capacity is around 6.5 megawatts.
Fail-safe and efficient cooling of the server systems was required here. The challenge for the IT air conditioning technology was to achieve the required output of 25 °C supply air and 39 °C exhaust air and to maintain this even in the event of a fault. This task therefore also required special technology with air conditioning units from BerlinerLuft.
The technical solution: a hybrid system
During the planning phase, the decision was made to use air conditioning units from the DataCond series with indirect evaporative cooling. The air flows from the data centre and the outside air are separated by a plate heat exchanger. This prevents both humidification of the indoor air and the ingress of unwanted particles or suspended matter from outside. Cooling purely by outside air is possible up to an outside temperature of around 16 °C thanks to the plate heat exchanger. If the temperature rises above 16 °C, the integrated adiabatic humidification is activated. This humidification of the plate heat exchanger utilises the effect of evaporative cooling. This ensures the required output up to an outside temperature of around 24 °C. In order to achieve the required output even at outside temperatures above 24 °C, a chiller was integrated. With simultaneous evaporation with the chiller, the required 25 °C supply air temperature is achieved even at outside temperatures of up to 50.4 °C. In other words, a hybrid system that cools the air both adiabatically and mechanically.
New dimensions – major challenges
The air conditioning units in the DataCond series are precision air conditioning units that can be adapted exactly to the temperature differences that arise. With many years of experience and expertise in air conditioning technology, BerlinerLuft. knew exactly what was important when planning a project of this size. Nevertheless: The sizes and the calculated dimensions of the total of 32 air conditioning units were new. With a depth of 3 m, a height of 3.60 m, a length of 8 m and a weight of 9 tonnes, the units were literally oversized. A four-storey steel structure was docked onto the building specifically for air conditioning.
Air conditioners with a colour concept
The air conditioning units had to comply with a specific colour concept and were painted in eight different colours. The background to this was the emergency power systems (EPS) installed in the buildings. EPSs are huge generators that can ensure the power supply to the data centre for hours or days in the event of an accident. Each data hall has specifically assigned EPSs to immediately recognise which area the respective power supply is responsible for in an emergency.
