Over the last few years the data center industry has been in the midst of historic change. One area in particular where this change has been seen most clearly is in the area of temperature control. Innovative owners, ASHRAE TC 9.9, and chip manufacturers have all played a part in developing a strong case for raising the recommended temperature to the servers.
This opportunity for significant OPEX savings has been embraced by many data center owners. One technology in particular that has been at the cutting edge of this movement is evaporative cooling. This solution has been applied in other industries for many years, but it was not until the past several years that data centers began to take advantage of this energy efficient solution.
United Metal Products and another larger manufacturer have been the main suppliers of evaporative cooling solutions to the data center market. However, often times specification are written so that there are three approved equipment suppliers for a project. The problem with this is that there is a significant difference in the design and manufacturing quality of the third supplier. While evaporative cooling offers a tremendous opportunity to the data center market it is critical that it is applied correctly. There are beginning to be stories of this third manufacturer winning work because of a super low price, but then being unable to perform, providing defective equipment, or being non-responsive to the owner once they have the purchase order.
How is it that United Metal Products has become aware of the problems with the other equipment provider? United Metal Products has been called a few times in the last year alone to complete a project or fix the mistakes of the other equipment provider. The point of this discussion is to provide a real world example to data center owners, general contractors, mechanical contractors, and engineers that not all evaporative equipment is created equal.
If you are planning on building a data center and are looking at applying evaporative cooling then make sure you contact United Metal Products at h.simmons@unitedmetal.com Their design assist team can help you to develop the best cooling system for your facility in order to optimize your OPEX savings, all without sacrificing reliability.