Precision Air Conditioner
“Technology is a rational discipline designed by humans to use science to dominate nature (What is Technology – Simon, 1983, p.173)”.
There are so many articles and sayings about Science and Technology and almost all of them reveal the intelligence and superiority of humans. In reality, technology is just the commercialization of science and sometimes it is neither about rationality, nor human intelligence and elite thoughts of humans. It is only focused on money and superiority.
Here, cooling, which is one of the main requirements of Data Center Physical Infrastructure, and the precision cooler technology produced for this need, are directed only by commercial concerns rather than human intelligence and creativity.
Information Technologies (IT), in addition to being superior all over the world, are becoming the basic need of existence. In order for Information Technologies to operate, power must be provided to the hardware and almost all the power provided is converted into heat in the Data Center hall. Then, expensive precision coolers are designed and produced to remove this heat. And in addition to what is consumed in IT devices, more power is consumed for their operation. A complete vicious cycle…
Initially, the power consumed and converted into heat did not matter to IT hardware manufacturers. The concern about the thermal side effects of the products they sold was negligible compared to what they earned, and they did not do any work to mitigate this effect. Similarly, the profits of companies selling precision coolers were also increasing rapidly. Their application-specific efficiency work was not very effective either. When the energy consumed for cooling began to exceed the energy spent for IT load, and traditional cooling systems surrendered to inadequacy with the increasing heat density, then everyone came to the level of rational thinking on this issue.
Companies that produce IT hardware and processors and the think tanks that guide them seem to completely change the Data Center cooling concept in the coming years, when efficiency is under great pressure. Traditional cooling technology, which creates great waste on the energy side, is expected to become rational and creative.
The high work continuity of IT devices is possible not only by providing uninterrupted and high-quality electrical energy, but also by keeping the environmental conditions of the environment where it operates within certain limits.
The temperature and relative humidity ranges in which IT devices operate are published by ASHRAE. One of these ranges is the “recommended” and the other is the “allowed” range. The “Recommended Range” provides the long-term operating condition where the IT hardware will provide the expected performance with high business continuity. The “Allowed Range” corresponds to the operating condition where the performance of the hardware will not change in a short time, but its performance will decrease over time throughout its expected lifespan, and even the risk of interruption in the business will increase as the time increases.
Almost all IT hardware shuts down to protect itself when the temperature of the cooler where the processors are mounted reaches a critical state after a certain temperature (thermal shutdown). In some IT hardware, there may be different limit values for temperature, humidity or the related state of both (wet bulb temperature) for other components other than the processor inside. Such as hard disks with a rotating mechanical mechanism or tapes with a magnetic structure. In such hardware, there may be narrower environmental conditions than the operating conditions of the processor, which is usually under control and has a robust structure.
While temperature is a criterion for the critical operating conditions of semiconductors, the amount of humidity in the air is also an important criterion in terms of performance or failure in the operation of the hardware as a whole system. Low humidity rates cause failures caused by static electricity, while high humidity rates cause failures caused by events such as condensation and metal particle accumulation in printed circuits.
In addition, standard IT hardware absorbs cold air and passes it over the surface of these components or through the installed coolers to cool the components within itself. In this case, not only the temperature criterion but also the desired air flow rate and cleaning the air from particles will be a feature of precision cooling.
As a result, precision cooling units are systems that provide a narrow temperature and relative humidity range, meet sufficient air flow capacity and filter the air, and remain in reliable operation 7×24 in order for the IT hardware hosted in Data Center halls to continue their operations with high business continuity.
Below is a research result on the environmental error sources of microprocessors. Temperature ranks first with 55%, vibration and relative humidity rank second and third with 20%. Dust ranks fourth with 6%.