Electronic equipment data center or co-location facility designs and methods of making and using the same

A facility with an internal area and an external area in an external environment for maintaining electronic equipment disposed in a plurality of cabinet clusters in the internal area at a cool temperature, the facility comprising:

• a building that includes an exterior load wall separating the internal area and the external area;
• a plurality of exterior wall openings in the exterior load wall;
• a floor within the internal area of the building on which the plurality of cabinet clusters are disposed;
• a plurality of cabinets for holding the electronic equipment therein, the plurality of cabinets positioned in a plurality of rows within each of a plurality of cabinet clusters so that the electronic equipment disposed within the cabinets emit heated air from the cabinets in each row of each cabinet cluster toward a central hot air area associated with each cabinet cluster;
• a plurality of support brackets within each cabinet cluster, disposed along each of the plurality of rows, that together provide support for distribution power wiring and conduits, electronic equipment power wiring and conduits, and communication wiring, wherein a portion of each of the support brackets is disposed above the plurality of cabinets within each cabinet cluster, and wherein some of the distribution power wiring and conduits string across other cabinets in other cabinet clusters;
• a thermal shield supported by the at least some of the plurality of support brackets within each cabinet cluster, the thermal shield providing a contiguous wall around the central hot air area and defining a hot air containment chamber that traps the heated air within the central hot air area and causes substantially all the heated air within the central hot air area to rise up within the hot air containment chamber for each cabinet cluster;
• a plurality of air conditioning units disposed in the external area outside the building that each receive heated air, emit cooled air, and emit vented air, wherein the vented air is released into the external environment;
• a warm air escape gap within the building disposed above the hot air containment chamber, the warm air escape gap feeding the heated air to the plurality of air conditioning units, the warm air escape gap being lowerly bounded by a false ceiling;
• cool air ducts within the building that couple to the plurality of air conditioning units and extend to cold aisles, the cool air ducts being disposed below the false ceiling and delivering cool air from the plurality of air conditioning units toward the plurality of rows of cabinets within each of the plurality of cabinet clusters;
• and
• warm air connectors and cool air duct connectors that respectively connect the warm air escape gap and the cold air ducts to the plurality of air conditioning units, and which pass through the plurality of exterior wall openings,
• wherein the plurality of rows within each cabinet cluster is two separated rows disposed in a back-to-back configuration, thereby establishing the central hot air area in between the two separated rows, such that the electronic equipment therein emit the heated air through a backside of the cabinet toward the central hot air area;
• and
• wherein the false ceiling provides a barrier to prevent the heated air from passing therebelow, and wherein an opening exists in the false ceiling corresponding to the hot air containment chamber through which the heated air passes, and wherein a top edge of the thermal shield for each cabinet cluster connects to the false ceiling to further prevent the heated air from escaping.