Californian colo provider Datacate, in conjunction with the public-owned Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has had a new, indirect evaporative cooling system built into its Rancho Cordova facility, engineered by Australian commercial air conditioning company Climate Wizard.

The system, which is installed on the roof of the facility, works as follows: Using outside air, water is drawn and both heat and moisture are extracted using an indirect evaporative heat exchanger, lowering the temperature of the air before it enters the CRAC unit. Then, hot air is then expelled from the server room back to the outside, with a reported maximum temperature difference of 40°F.

Moist 

Climate Wizard states that it can cool a facility using 80 percent less energy than an equivalent refrigerant cooling system, with facilities manager Chris James stating that “we have seen reductions in raw utility usage for non-server loads of over 65 percent.”

“On the first 95°F day we were averaging eight percent compressor utilization compared to a similar period last year at over 80 percent.”

The deal appears to mark Climate Wizard’s arrival in the US - based in South Australia, its website highlights reference sites Down Under, including Telstra’s Victoria data center, Broadcast Australia’s Southern and Western facilities and Commtel’s Melbourne data center.

The system is not exclusive to data center use however, and is also installed in commercial buildings, public institutions, manufacturing and food and drinks production facilities.