Cold Aisle Containment: Facts & Information
Cold Aisle Containment System
Cold aisle containment (CAC) is a key component of NetFire’s Environmental Management System, and has a wide range of benefits for your infrastructure. This document explains the science behind CAC and how it can help your organization succeed.
CAC utilizes a physical barrier separating cold supply airflow from the hot equipment exhaust air. This allows our engineers to maintain a uniform, predictable air temperature cooled to your specifications. A CAC data center offers many advantages over those relying on conventional cooling methods, offering both Energy Efficiency and Space Efficiency.
- Energy Efficiency: CAC provides the barrier necessary to contain cold air and prevent hot air from pooling in front of your servers. In this system, hot air and cold air never mix – cold air is sealed at the front, while hot air is sealed at the back. This ensures a predictable air temperature without “hot spots”, optimizing your operating conditions while saving an average of 30% on cooling costs.
- Space Efficiency: Data center space is costly. Because the area around the top of the rack is often impacted by “hot spots”, many data centers under-populate their racks. With CAC, air temperature is uniform, allowing for better use of space and a lower space cost per server. We pass these savings along to our clients, giving them more value for our service.
In addition to the cost and energy savings, CAC provides several key advantages for your infrastructure, as well:
- Yields a predictable supply temperature to the intake of IT equipment as well as a warmer, drier return air to the AC coil.
- Double, or even triple kW per rack.
- 1 degree temperature difference from top to bottom.
- Provides a consistent acceptable supply to IT intake at any point inside the aisle.
- Reduced white space requirements through optimized server racks.
These are just a few examples of the positive impact CAC has on your infrastructure – as a whole, CAC leaves more power available to keep your equipment running smoothly. It results in increased equipment uptime and can lead to longer hardware life. For more information on how a CAC system can help you, contact NetFire.