Stulz technology delivers data centre sustainability

Stulz technology delivers data centre sustainability

Inverter technology Kiwi householders have snapped up for efficient and convenient air-conditioning is now used by Stulz NZ to ensure data centres also keep their cool without costing the earth.

Making do with air-conditioning technology designed to keep people at an ambient temperature struggles to deliver the reliability and efficiency data centres demand when working in a mission critical framework.

Stulz NZ sales manager Mark Langford says the German cooling company’s latest technology resulted from the company’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions for their clients and the ever increasing cost of energy.

“The company has been at the forefront of efficiency technology and New Zealand and Australian markets are at a huge advantage with access to their research and development, and utilising the technology,” says Langford.

The German family-owned business has specialised in air-conditioning systems for data centres since the 1970s and its latest innovation promises to deliver environmentally friendly efficiency and technical excellence.

“Inverter technology inherent in heat pumps we use to efficiently heat or cool our homes has only been recently introduced to data centre cooling. In New Zealand numerous IT companies have grown from small to medium operations as the data centre business has grown. Comfort air-conditioning units have been installed to satisfy organic growth,” says Langford.

A convenient and quick solution, however comfort air-conditioners are not designed to run 24/7 and are not suitable for high sensible cooling environments.

Stulz CyberRow cooling technology achieves efficiencies by positioning units beside the racks and cool air blows horizontally across the front of racks where it is needed,” says Langford.

The cooling units automatically respond to variable loads and reduce unnecessary energy consumption.

A unique feature to Stulz CyberRow cooling systems is the onboard humidifier, which prevents the build up of static electricity that occurs in data centres that are too dry.

The system is designed for flexibility and is universally suitable for racks from various manufacturers.

SASIT cool upgrade

System Advisory Services Limited (SASIT) grew over four decades and plans for further growth demanded a progressive upgrade of the centre that delivered mission critical service to clients and allowed for market expansion.

SASIT general manager, Matt Roberts says the room housing the data centre was cooled with wall mounted air-conditioning units, which handled the former iSeries and associated infrastructure.

Cooling the space with air-conditioners was costly and removed moisture from the air. Not only were these older systems power inefficient, but they increased the potential for a build-up of static electricity.

“We’ve become technology agnostic and have various types of hardware in our data centre. Each rack consumes about three kilowatts of power and the cooling requirements have become critical for us,” says Roberts.

The 18-month data centre upgrade included analysing all components associated with the system including power consumption, cooling reliability and rack positioning.

“The system must run 24/7 and anything we developed had to be N+1. It was essential the development included provision for redundancy within the cooling system, which allows for possible failure or scheduled maintenance.”

Phase one is complete, with 50 per cent of the racks moved into a hot and cold aisle configuration using Stulz CyberRow coolers.

Mark Langford sales manager for Stulz NZ Ltd says Stulz CyberRow coolers met all requirements of the growing IT company.

“Efficiencies are gained by positioning CyberRow cooling units beside the racks and distributing air horizontally across the front of racks – directly where it is needed. The onboard humidifier is a unique feature of Stulz CyberRow cooling systems.”

Although the SASIT data centre operates continuously there are variable loads throughout the day and the cooling units automatically respond to temperature and humidity changes, which reduces energy consumption.

Roberts says the data centre now maintains a relative humidity at about 40 per cent to reduce the risk of static electricity build up and discharge.

“The maintenance requirements have reduced and the reliability of air-conditioning has improved,” says Roberts.

The Stulz CyberRow system is designed for flexibility and is universally suitable for racks from various manufacturers.

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