Data Centre

A data centre for accommodating a plurality of racks of IT equipment, the data centre comprising:

• a. a plurality of hot aisles interleaved with a plurality of cold aisles, wherein each hot aisle is separated from an adjacent cold aisle by a rack storage area, each rack storage area being arranged to accommodate a row of racks of IT equipment;
• and
• b. an air handling unit configured to supply cooling air to the rack storage areas via the cold aisles;
• wherein, the data centre additionally comprises:
• c. a services area for accommodating at least one uninterruptible power supply (UPS) switchboard for directing electrical power to a plurality of racks of IT equipment, the services area comprising at least one hot zone and at least one cold zone, the at least one hot zone being separated from the at least one cold zone by at least one of (i) a UPS switchboard storage area and (ii) a partition, the UPS switchboard storage area being configured to accommodate at least one UPS switchboard;
• wherein, in use, cooling air is supplied to the UPS switchboard storage area from the air handling unit via the cold zone of the services area;
• and wherein, the data centre additionally comprises a cooling air supply space for transporting cooling air from the air handling unit and to:
• i) the plurality of cold aisles, and
• ii) the cold zone of the services area,
• the cooling air supply space being configured to receive air from:
• i) the air handling unit, and
• ii) the hot zone of the services area.

A method of cooling electrical equipment in a data centre, wherein the data centre comprises:

• a plurality of hot aisles interleaved with a plurality of cold aisles, wherein each hot aisle is separated from an adjacent cold aisle by a row of IT equipment racks;
• an air handling unit;
• a services area accommodating at least one uninterruptible power supply (UPS) switchboard for directing electrical power a plurality of IT equipment racks, the services area comprising at least one cold zone and at least one hot zone separated from the at least one cold zone;
• a cooling air supply space;
• and wherein the method comprises:
• cooling IT equipment in the IT equipment racks by supplying cooling air from the air handling unit via the cold aisles, such air then passing via the hot aisles,
• cooling the at least one UPS switchboard by supplying cooling air from the air handling unit via the at least one cold zone of the services area, such air then passing via the at least one hot zone of the services area,
• supplying via the cooling air supply space cooling air from the air handling unit to:
• i) the IT equipment in the IT equipment racks, and
• ii) the UPS switchboard,
• and supplying to the cooling air supply space:
• i) cooling air from the air handling unit, and
• ii) warm air from the UPS switchboard.