Back to results
US 8,209,993 B2Granted
Warm water cooling
AssigneeExaflop LLC
InventorsAndrew Carlson, William Whitted, Jimmy Clidaras, William Hamburgen, Gerald Aigner, Donald L. Beaty
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of providing cooled air to electronic equipment includes capturing heated air from a volume containing electronic equipment, cooling the heated air by more than fifteen degrees Celsius in an air-to-water heat exchanger, and supplying cooling water to the air-to-water heat exchanger at a temperature above a dew point temperature of the heated air.
Claims27
A method of providing cooled air to electronic equipment, comprising:
- capturing air from a human-occupiable workspace in a data center and controlling flow of the air through a volume containing electronic equipment so that the air rises in temperature by twenty degrees Celsius or more from an ambient temperature of the workspace as it passes through the volume, and capturing the heated air from the volume;
- cooling the heated air by twenty degrees Celsius or more in an air-to-water heat exchanger;
- supplying cooling water to the air-to-water heat exchanger at a temperature above a dew point temperature of the heated air;
- and
- controlling the water to maintain the temperature of the cooling water at the temperature above the dew point temperature of the heated air,
- wherein the captured air passes by parallel paths through a plurality of vertically-stacked bays defined in the volume such that the air rises in temperature by twenty degrees Celsius or more from the ambient temperature of the workspace while passing between a first side and a second side of particular ones of the plurality of bays, the first side being open to the workspace to allow access to computing devices mounted in the particular ones of the plurality of bays while the captured air passes through the plurality of bays, and
- at least a portion of the airflow circulates through a circulation loop that comprises an airflow path from the workspace to a respective bay of the plurality of vertically-stacked bays in the volume, then to an area of a warm air plenum positioned in the volume behind the respective bay, then from the area of the warm air plenum positioned in the volume behind the respective bay to an area of the warm air plenum in an attic space above the volume, then from the area of the warm air plenum in the attic space above the volume to the air-to-water heat exchanger positioned in the volume.
4 more elements
A method of providing cooled air to electronic equipment, comprising:
- heating air drawn from a human-occupiable workspace by a temperature differential of 20 degrees Celsius or more by passing it over electronic equipment along the height of an equipment rack that houses the electronic equipment,
- cooling, by one or more cooling coils, the heated air from the electronic equipment by approximately the same temperature as the temperature differential by supplying cooling water to the one or more cooling coils at a temperature above a dew point temperature of the heated air;
- and
- returning the cooled air to the workspace,
- wherein the air passes by parallel paths through a plurality of bays defined in the equipment rack such that the air rises in temperature by twenty degrees Celsius or more from the ambient temperature of the workspace while passing between a first side and a second side of particular ones of the plurality of bays, the first side being open to the workspace to allow access to the electronic equipment mounted in the particular ones of the plurality of bays while the air passes through the plurality of bays, and
- at least a portion of the airflow circulates through a circulation loop that comprises an airflow path from the workspace to a respective bay of the plurality of bays in a volume comprising the workspace, then to an area of a warm air plenum positioned in the volume behind the respective bay, then from the area of the warm air plenum positioned in the volume behind the respective bay to an area of the warm air plenum in an attic space above the volume, then from the area of the warm air plenum in the attic space above the volume to the one or more cooling coils positioned in the volume.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.