Aisle Containment

Aisle Containment

Cold Aisle Containment (CAC) is a containment system that builds on conventional hot and cold aisles retaining cold air at the front of the rack.

This ensures an even distribution of temperature at both the top and bottom of each rack front which is the point of ingress for air entering the server & Networking Equipment.

The Function

Within the cold aisles, blanking plates are fitted into each rack where equipment is not located and also to the bottom of the rack.

This prevents cold air from leaking through to the warm air and vice versa.

Plastic curtains are installed from the top of the rack to the finished ceiling and at either end of the cold aisle rows.

This creates a sealed cold corridor preventing cold air from escaping and mixing with hot air unless it is circulated through the server fans and into the warm aisle.

This also prevents warm air re-circulating back into the cold aisles and thus having a negative effect.

The net result of CAC is that the Datacenter areas outside of cold aisles can be run at higher temperatures without affecting the temperature of air entering servers.

The Datacenters Process Coolers which drive cold air into the floor plenum, can be run at a higher set point and thus require less electricity to maintain the cold aisles at their average temperature of 22 degrees C.

In conjunction with CAC, the Process Coolers should be inverter controlled which enable the units to run at 50% reduced power helping to reduce the total electricity usage for the Datacenter’s cooling.