Thermal analysis for data centres

Rittal now offers a thermal analyses service for data centres. On average, approximately 18 percent of the energy costs occurring in data centres are consumed by cooling systems. An optimised climate control system can cut energy costs.

Data centre thermal analyses enables companies to identify and resolve defects in climate control systems. The functionality of the hardware and the energy efficiency of IT infrastructures are determined, to a large extent, by the temperature in the server rack and/or data centre.
If the temperature is too high, there is a greater chance that systems will fail and energy costs for cooling increase. Servers in upper rack areas are often supplied with insufficient cold air, resulting in temperatures that rise above the specified limit values. Outer enclosures in non-contained cold aisles are also often problematic as larger volumes of warm air flow into these areas and mix with the cold air.

Rittal uses thermal analyses to visualise, document and optimise the weaknesses that cause these problems. The analyses involve measuring the temperature of the cold air at the air inlet of each server rack, in a vertical pitch of 100 to 200 mm, to determining the rack surface temperatures using infra-red thermography.

Once the measurements have been processed, customers are given a detailed written report with the measurement results clearly depicted in tables and graphs. This makes it easy to identify temperature problems on server racks and servers. These measurements can then be used as a sound basis for putting in place carefully targeted measures to optimise the climate control system.