Data center cooling

The constant innovation in chiller design is driven by new demands for energy efficiency, local regulations and standards such as LEED, combined with requirements for new, low GWP refrigerants.

Today, data center cooling systems are also required to provide owners and operators with exceptional benefits. Danfoss has the solutions to meet and exceed these standards and demands:

• High efficiency for high temperature chilled water applications
• Excellent performance at part-load
• Widest low to ultra-low GWP portfolio in compressors, heat exchangers, valves, controllers and system protectors, complemented by HVAC drives

CRAC units need to operate reliably and provide cooling in both compressor and free cooling modes, achieving high reliability, and optimal humidity and temperatures as well as part-load efficiency.  

Danfoss solutions help meet energy and performance standards and low PUE targets:

• High efficiency for high temperature applications
• Excellent performance at
  part-load
• Widest low GWP portfolio in compressors, heat exchangers, flow controls, controllers and system protectors

Establishing the most accurate air supply temperature from a data center’s Air Handling Unit is critical. This requires the most accurate control of airflow through the Air Hand Unit, and water flows into the heat exchangers for heating or cooling the  air flow into the data center. In most cases a variable chilled water flow system is used for this. 

Danfoss solutions helps increase the energy efficiency of the data centers’ cooling source with:

• Drives for fans
• Pressure Independent balancing and Control Valves (PICV) and actuators for full and partial-load conditions
• Motorized Control Valves and Manual Balancing valves, and shut-off valves

Free cooling is an approach to lowering the air temperature in a building or data center by using naturally cool air or water instead of mechanical refrigeration. It delivers optimal performance by minimizing compressor operation when outdoor air temperatures are low enough to assist in cooling the chilled water loop. Power is only used to run the pumps and fans that keep the water moving, which reduces the facility’s electrical expenses and carbon footprint.

Danfoss heat exchanger solutions can be fully customized to meet your data center's exact requirements:

• Traditional, semi-welded, free flow, sanitary plate heat exchangers as well as evaporators and condensers
• For large chilled water and free cooling systems

Complemented by high pressure pumps for reverse osmosis and evaporative systems

Danfoss AC drives applied to air recirculation fans in the data center control the air flow between the racks. Removing excessive heat around the IT installations, they ensure optimal thermal conditions to protect electronic components and enable optimal performance of the servers.

By optimizing pumping operations with Variable frequency drives (VFD) it’s possible to enhance system performance significantly in refrigeration and air conditioning applications.

Installing Danfoss AC drives ensures and optimized production and protection of the drive, motor and other systemt equipment. They also ensure improved liquid supply in case of leakage or broken pipes and offers several control features and smart protection capability.

EC+: More freedom to ventilation system designers

To get high performance and system efficiency in an HVAC system, the individual components need to be broadly compatible with each other. For instance, the overall system efficiency would suffer with a high-efficiency motor that is only compatible with lower efficiency fans.

The EC+ concept from Danfoss allows system designers to combine the most efficient fan and permanent magnet motor with a VLT® HVAC Drive. This brings several advantages:

• Free choice of motor technology
• Unchanged device installation and operation
• Free choice of components from any Manufacturer 

This tough and savvy FC102 drive enhances pump, fan, and chiller applications’ performance in buildings and runs outdoor in most climates.

• Slim down your TCO
• Fully reliability running this drive outdoors with temperature extremes from 50°C to minus 25°C
• Save time and maximize uptime by parameterizing and troubleshooting from outside the AHU
• Get exactly the motor you prefer, for whatever reason from supply security to performance optimization
• Easily integrate the AC drive into your building automation system is a key to optimal control

For a large British manufacturer, we helped install a scalable data center cooling solution. The installation consists of 6 phases each 500m² complete with 12 high efficient cooling units, each with multiple inverter fans and compressors in order to minimize energy use and provide N+1 resilience. The units are designed to maintain the data center at 21°C ± 3°C and humidity between 20 and 80% RH.

A world-leading technology company houses multiple data centers at its 40-building campus in San Diego. To power the campus, the company uses an expansive, on-site energy infrastructure. Our expert team helped build three 1,400 Ton chillers powered by 21 Danfoss Turbocor® compressors to improve efficiency and lower costs.

Equinix’ is the world’s biggest colocation provider and connects some of the world’s leading businesses. Danfoss delivers reliable control of data center pumps and ventilators to extract as much heat as possible from server rooms to ensure a long service life for the sensitive digital equipment. Approximately 135 VLT^® HVAC Drive FC 102 are in operation at the Equinix data center in Amsterdam.

The Hershey Company and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Studios installed cooling systems with Danfoss Turbocor^® compressors to ensure a continuously high performance. These variable-speed centrifugal semi-hermetic compressors use oil-free magnetic bearings to minimize oil-related performance problems and mechanical wear.  

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