Energy-efficient cooling technology
Datum's energy efficient adiabatic cooling solutions are designed to maximise energy efficiency using cost effective, state-of-the-art technology.
Traditional approaches focus on chilled water CRAC units to distribute the supply air under a raised access floor and employing cold aisle containment. Whilst this is the prevalent legacy approach in the data centre market for low power densities, it is limited in energy efficiency and does not work as well at high power densities. A better solution is the free cooling design that we employ. It uses a flooded airflow approach to deliver energy efficient and cost effective data centres, significantly reducing running costs and carbon footprint both for ourselves and our clients
The flooded air supply together with separate ceiling return air path enables extremely energy efficient, predictable cooling for high and low densities, whilst removing the cooling plant and associated water service risks completely from the IT space. The cooling system is designed to indirectly use ambient air to provide free cooling. Complete separation of the supply and return air paths is achieved by isolating the hot and cold aisles. Supply air is provided for the entire height of the room, removing the higher power required to pressurise a raised floor, whilst return air is ducted directly back to the cooling units via a ceiling plenum, removing the risk of any hotspots and ensuring a large cold air battery in the event of system failure or generator start.
Datum adds carbon offsetting to its green credentials
We have always been proud of our green credentials and have been committed to offering the very best in environmental efficiency since we designed and built our facility in 2012. We have used renewable energy for many years and our facility’s state of the art adiabatic cooling maximises energy efficiency; this has allowed us to consistently achieve our design PUE of 1.25. Furthermore, our green credentials are supported by our accreditations including ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management and ISO 50001:2018 for Energy Management. So, when it came to selecting a new energy contract, we wanted to partner with a power supplier that would reflect commitment to sustainability.
Our two-year sustainable power agreement supplies us with energy from renewable sources (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) have been procured to cover the full supply) and we are thrilled that this new agreement includes full carbon offsetting using forestry products from the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project.
- Complete alignment of our energy efficiency goals with those of our clients
- A reduced carbon footprint
- Reduced cost.
Datum's environmental accreditations
Datum’s credentials for FRN1 as a green data centre are supported by a range of accreditations and demonstrate Datum’s ability to deliver a secure and energy efficient environment for its clients’ critical IT infrastructures:
- ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management
- EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
- ISO 27001:2013 Information Management
- ISO 50001:2018 accreditation for Energy Management (underpinned by an effective energy management system, a Plan-Do-Check-Act continual improvement framework and its energy efficient free cooling system)
- ISO 9001 quality accreditation
- DCA Class 3 Fully Operational
- PCI DSS compliance
Main benefits
- Industry leading PUE achievable even at partial load
- Up to 30kW per rack power density at any rack with no hotspots
- Intelligent air volume flow management
- Air battery in the event of generator start or cooling failure
- No water or maintenance within IT space
Key metrics
- Datacentre temperature range 24 +/-2°C Resilience N+2
- Temperature and humidity extendable to allow ASHRAE range
- Datacentre Humidity Range 40-60% Relative Humidity
- Annualised energy use for our cooling design at full capacity achieves PUE of 1.25 at full load. Even at partial loads a PUE of 1.4 is achievable.